Observing the Sun:
If you have never viewed the Sun before PLEASE ask one of our members to show you how to do this safely and read the page on Solar Safety before attempting any kind of viewing of the Sun!
Sunspot Numbers
When observing the Sun consider taking a count of active areas and calculating the relative sunspot number (R) and reporting these to the BAA Solar Section
The Sun has an obliquity to the ecliptic of 7.25° if you record your solar observations as drawings then you should use the appropriate Stonyhurst disc as a template, this will allow you to identify the latitude of the sunspot at any time of year.
Live Image from SOHO
Active Areas or Sunspot groups (g)
This is a count of all the active areas on the disk, if there is a sunspot, however small, this is an active area (group) if sunspots are separated by at least 10° then they are separate active areas, a large spread out area is still considered a single AA unless there are clear centres of activity within the larger area, then they are counted separately.
Relative Sunspot Number (R)
To find the Relative Sunspot Number count all the individual sun spots call this number, f, then the relative sun spot number, R = (10 x g) + f
Example: 3 active areas, 35 spots, R=(10×3) +35 = 65 (no other spots on disk)
Reporting
Regardless how infrequent your observing the BAA Solar Section are happy to receive your observations, these can be in the form of images, drawings and monthly reports.
Useful Filters
The Sun can be observed through different filters and these have advantage and disadvantages, please speak to other Members of the Society or the BAA Solar Section for detailed information.
Baader Solar Safety Film – White light filter, very cheap but effective full apature filter, turns any telescope into a solar telescope.
Herschel Wedge – White light Filter, very expensive but Members tend to get better results with these than with solar safety film.
Solar Continuum Filter – Only for use with a Herschel wedge or Solar Safety film, increases the contrast of surface features.
Hydrogen Alpha Solar Scopes – Many makes of these available, they are very expensive (~£600 for the cheapest) but will enable you to see solar flares and other features not visible with white light.
CaK Solar Scopes – Many makes of these available, they are very expensive (~£600 for the cheapest) but will enable you to image solar flares and other features not visible with white light, not suitable for visual observations.
The Sun – May 2023
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please see our Solar Observing safety page at crayfordmanorastro.com/solar-safety/
The latest images of our active Sun by members Simon Dawes and Jim Burchell.
Simon’s 3 images below were taken on the 18th May 2023. Details of how Simon acquired the images are on the photos.
Jim’s image was taken on the 21st May 2023
The Sun by Simon Dawes – 10th & 16th May 2023
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please see our Solar Observing safety page at crayfordmanorastro.com/solar-safety/
A fantastic collection of images of our Sun taken by Simon Dawes on the 10th & 16th May 2023 from North Kent, showing lots of sunspots 🙂
Details of how Simon acquired his images are on the photos.
The Sun on the 16th May 2023
The Sun on the 10th May 2023
The Sun – 29th April 2023 by Jim Burchell
Images by Jim Burchell – 23rd to 25th Feb 2023
Member Jim Burchell was busy out and about towards the end of February photographing our stunning sky and below is a selection of his superb images.
Orion, Taurus and the Pleiades taken on the 23rd Feb from the CMHASD pavilion, Sutton-at-Hone.
Image was taken with a Pentax KP on a static tripod, F6.3, 30 sec, 18 MM and iso 800.
Crescent Moon on the 24th Feb.
The Sun taken on the 24th Feb.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please see our Solar Observing safety page at crayfordmanorastro.com/solar-safety/
Crescent Moon with Jupiter & Venus on the 25th Feb.
Active Sun – 10th February 2023 by Jim Burchell
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please see our Solar Observing safety page at crayfordmanorastro.com/solar-safety/
A super image of an active Sun captured by member Jim Burchell on the 10th February 2023 showing Sunspots 3213 to 3221. Jim took the image with a Pentax KP attached to 102mm Altair Astro refractor using a solar filter.
Below is an image of the Sun on the 10th Feb 2023 taken from Spaceweather com showing the sunspots with their allocated numbers. Credit: SDO/HMI
Enormous Sunspot AR3190 – 20th Jan 2023
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please see our Solar Observing safety page at crayfordmanorastro.com/solar-safety/
A fantastic image of the Sun taken on the morning of the 20th January 2023 by member Jim Burchell. The image was taken by Jim using a pentax KP attached to 102mm Atair Astro refractor fitted with a solar filter. At the 4 O clock position from the centre of the Sun is the large sunspot AR3190. AR3190 is one of the largest sunspots of Solar Cycle 25 so far, at almost five times the diameter of Earth.
Boxing Day Sun in Hydrogen Alpha by Honor Wheeler
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please see our Solar Observing safety page at crayfordmanorastro.com/solar-safety/
A stunning image of the Sun in H-alpha on 26th Dec 2022 by Honor Wheeler.
The image was acquired by Honor at 20221226_1212UT using a Canon M6 Mark II and Personal Solar Telescope (PST).
Honor wrote ‘This image of the Sun was taken using a Coronado personal solar telescope or PST which shows the Sun’s H-alpha surface features. These features include Sunspots, Filaments and Prominences. In this image there are a number of large Prominences around the edge of the Sun’s disc and on the surface these can be seen as the dark Filaments snaking across the face of the Sun. The bright areas are Sunspots which are active regions which can flare brightly as you can see at the top right of the disc. Most H-alpha images that show Sunspot and Prominence detail and activity are composite images and are photographed separately then combined in editing software. In this case however, I was lucky and I managed to capture both Prominence, surface structures and activity in one single photo.’
New Society Solar Projector built by member George Buckberry – Society Meeting – 2023.01.26
Member George Buckberry with his hand built Solar Projector
Last week following our Society meeting on the 26th January 2023, we learned about the design and construction of a table-top solar projector built by George Buckberry. After all of the effort involved in building the projector, George has very kindly donated it to the Society for use by members and also as a means of educating the public at one of our outreach events. Thank you George for your very kind donation.
Below is a link to George’s PowerPoint presentation of how George built the Solar Projector in the form of a PDF file which you can download.
SolarScope Design & Build by George Buckberry of CMHASD
Very Active Sun – 2023 Jan 15 – Honor Wheeler.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please see our Solar Observing safety page at crayfordmanorastro.com/solar-safety/
On the morning of Sunday 15th January 2023, CMHASD member Honor Wheeler captured this absolutely stunning image of the Sun. As you can see it was very active and still is! Details of how Honor acquired her brilliant image are on the photo.
The information below is taken from the website Spaceweather.com
Picture above shows the Sun on 15th January 2023 – taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory with the Sun spots labelled.
”’…I can’t remember having seen so many sunspots together; indeed, the sunspot number is high. If solar activity continues at this pace for the rest of January, the monthly sunspot number will reach a 20-year high. And Solar Maximum is still ~2 years away. Contrary to predictions, Cycle 25 is shaping up to be a good one, after all.”
17th Jan 2023
”NAKED-EYE SUNSPOT: One of the biggest sunspots in years (AR3190) is crossing the solar disk–and you can see it with the naked eye. “Be sure to use safe solar glasses to protect your eyes,” says Bum-Suk Yeom of Iksan, South Korea. “I tried it myself today, and I could see the sunspot clearly.”
As shown in Yeom’s infographic, the sunspot is four times wider than Earth. It’s twice as big as any other spot on the sun, visible to the naked eye, and a magnificent target for backyard solar telescopes.
Best of all, it’s about to explode. AR3190 has an unstable ‘beta-gamma-delta’ magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares. Any eruptuions will be geoeffective because the sunspot is almost directly facing Earth.” ”
Unusual Sunspot AR3088 – 26th August 2022 by Simon Dawes
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
On the morning of the 26th August 2022 member Simon Dawes imaged 3 of the sunspots on the sun – AR3086. AR3088 and AR3089 and superb images they are too. Sunspot AR3088 however looked a little bit different from the usual sunspots seen and indeed it was according to Spaceweather.com – see below.
Details of how Simon acquired the images are on each photo.
Unusual sunspot AR3088
Screen shot from Spaceweather.com explaining why sunspot AR3088 looks unusual….
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=25&month=08&year=2022
Sunspot AR3089
Sunspot AR3086
The Sun – 22nd August 2022
Our sun on the 22nd Aug 2022 imaged by member Simon Dawes. Despite seeing being very poor that morning; a great image was achieved by Simon showing an active sun. Details of how Simon acquired the images are on the main photo.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Sunspot AR3085
Sunspot AR3081
The Sun – 15th July 2022
More super images of the Sun by member Simon Dawes taken on the 15th July 2022 showing the Sun speckled with sunspots. Details of how Simon took the images are on the pictures.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Sunspots at Sundown – 13th July 2022
Whist waiting for the Moon to rise on the 13th July 2022 members Honor Wheeler and Jim Burchell photographed the Sun as it set with just their cameras. When they looked at their images they saw that they had captured some of the massive sunspots on the Sun that day too in their photos. In both images you can see sunspot AR3055 bottom middle right and sunspot AR3057 top left on the Sun. In Honor’s image you can also see Sunspot AR3053 middle right too.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Honor Wheeler’s image
Jim Burchell’s image
Active Sun – 11th July 2022
Member Simon Dawes imaged our Sun on the morning of the 11th July 2022 and as you can see the Sun is very active. Details of how Simon acquired the images are on the photos.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Sunspot AR3053
Sunspot AR3055 – stretching more than 100,000 km from end to end with more than a dozen dark cores. Simon said ‘AR3055 its seems to be getting longer as I couldn’t get it in the frame so had to do a composite.’
Sunspot AR3056
New Sunspot – this new active region was just peeping round the limb of the Sun on the 11th July. Now Sunspot AR3057
Making a Hi-Res Solar Telescope
Simon modified a cheap, old and unused telescope with significant chromatic aberration into a super high resolution Solar telescope, his video below explains how he did it.
Image taken with Simon’s hi-res Solar Telescope.
The Sun by Simon Dawes – 10th July 2022
Member Simon Dawes captured some superb images of the Sun this morning. The Sun is quite active at the moment with several sunspots.
Details of how Simon took the images are on the photos.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Making a Solar Filter for my Skywatcher 190MN
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
My Skywatcher 190MN telescope has a very wide field of view I can easily fit the full Moon or Sun on the chip, so I thought I’d get myself some Baader solar Safety Film and make myself a solar filter – the video below shows how i made it and shows some early results. Check-out our solar section for more images.
The Sun
The Sun on the 14th May 2022 taken by member & trustee Simon Dawes.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
The Sun – 8th & 9th May 2022 by Simon Dawes
Two more great images of our Sun on the 8th & 9th May 2022 by Simon Dawes and now up to Sunspot number AR3007.
Sunspot AR3006 however is behaving a bit odd as described on Spaceweather.com ”A MIXED-UP SUNSPOT: Sunspot AR3006 is having an identity crisis. It is supposed to have a +/- magnetic field. Mostly it does. But deep inside the sunspot’s primary core, the polarity is opposite: -/+…………….The mixture of magnetic polarities makes this sunspot interesting and dangerous. When opposite polarities bump together, it can light the fuse of magnetic reconnection–the explosive power source of solar flares. If AR3006 flares today, it will be geoeffective. The sunspot is directly facing Earth.”
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
The Sun 8th May 2022
The Sun 9th May 2022
The Sun – 6th May 2022
The latest image of the Sun taken by Simon Dawes.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
The Sun by Simon Dawes
The Sun on the 30th April 2022 taken by Simon Dawes. As you can see the Sun was still ‘active’ re sunspots on that day.
As of today (5th May) we are now up to AR3006 and in the past 24 hours sunspot AR3004 has produced over 18 solar flares (15+ C-class flares and 3 M-flares).
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
The Sun on the 30th April 2022
Sunspots AR2993 & AR2994 by Kevin Langford
Superb close up of Sunspots AR2993 & AR2994 captured by member Kevin Langford on the 24th April 2022 using ASI385mc, SW 130 Reflector on a SW Adventure tracker mount. Using SharpCap, Autostakkert 2 and PS.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Spotty Sun
More sunspots!!!!
Now up to AR2999 and counting as there is now a new very active region of sunspots appearing on the Sun as of today which have yet to be given an AR number.
This new source of solar activity has so far been of C-class explosions which have in the past 24 hours hurled at least two CMEs into space. We (Earth) are not yet in the line of fire but as the active region rotates toward facing our planet things could change……
Simon Dawes captured these 2 white light image of the Sun on the 24th & 26th April 2022.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
The Sun on the 24th April 2022
The Sun on the 26th April 2022
Active Sun
And they keep coming………more sunspots appearing on the Sun as captured by Simon Dawes on the 23rd April 2022. Now up to sunspot AR 2996 on Simon’s image below but as of 24th April – sunspot AR 2997 has put in an appearance.
NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
The Sun by Simon Dawes
Nice to see some sunspots on the Sun and there are quite a few visible at the moment as Simon Dawes shows in his recent images taken of the Sun on the 20th & 21st April 2022. NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY. Please click here for solar observing safely.
Sunspot complex AR2993-94 is crackling away with M-class solar flares and did directly face Earth a day later. They are ‘big’ sunspots too. The two dark cores are as large as Earth and a magnetic filament attached to one of the cores is more than 100,000 km long.
Sun on 20th April 2022
Sun on 21st April 2022
Sunspots are caused by magnetic disruptions of the visible photosphere of the sun which exposes the relatively cooler layers underneath – appearing as a black spot.
The sun’s magnetic entanglements and disentanglement happen in 11-year cycles with each solar cycle having phases of low and high activity. Solar activity cycles have been numbered since 1775, when extensive recording of sunspot activity began.
We are currently in Solar Cycle 25, which has yet to reach its peak. The current cycle is expected to reach its maximum activity in late 2024 or early 2025, this means we may see more and bigger sunspots.
The Sun – 3rd April 2022
A superb image of an ‘active’ Sun by Simon Dawes taken from Bexleyheath. Details of how Simon took the photo are on the image.
The Sun – 25th March 2022
A lovely image of the Sun showing 3 sunspots taken by Simon Dawes on the morning of the 25th March 2022 from Bexleyheath. Details of how Simon acquired the image is on the photo.
The Sun – 23rd March 2022
Another great image of the Sun by Simon Dawes taken today from Bexleyheath. Details of how the image was acquired is written on the photo. Three sunspot groups are visible.
The Sun – 18th March 2022
A very nice image of the Sun with sun spots taken by Simon Dawes on the morning of the 18th March 2022 from Bexleyheath. Taken using a Baader solar safety filter, skywatcher 190mn telescope, ZWO ASI1600mm pro CMOS camera, mesu e200 MkII mount and sharpcap pro image capture software.
Solar Images By Leigh Slomer
Taken on the 8th of June with a Daystar Solar Scout SS60-DS and a ZWO ASI174MM camera. My 1st proper attempt at imaging the sun in H-Alpha.
Taken on the 16th of July with a Daystar Solar Scout SS60-DS and a ZWO ASI174MM camera.
Sun spots! 2020-12-27
Images by Honor Wheeler
Image by Honor Wheeler Skywatcher ED80 refractor, Canon M6 Mark2 camera. EQ3 synscan mount. For the full disc I used a x2 Barlow and the close up x5 Barlow. Processed using PIPP, AS!3 & PShop elements6. I could have done better but didn’t have clear skies really for long enough and at the moment the sun is so darn low! Anyway happy to get these.
Image by Honor Wheeler Skywatcher ED80 refractor, Canon M6 Mark2 camera. EQ3 synscan mount. For the full disc I used a x2 Barlow and the close up x5 Barlow. Processed using PIPP, AS!3 & PShop elements6. I could have done better but didn’t have clear skies really for long enough and at the moment the sun is so darn low! Anyway happy to get these.
ISS transit of the Sun
Honor recently took this video of a transit of the Sun by the ISS, something she has been attempting for 10 years.
Image by Honor Wheeler This was taken using: Skywatcher ED80 refractor Canon 700D set in movie mode @50fps 2x Barlow EQ3 mount Date 2020.04.20 13:09UTC Transit time was 0.9 sec 16 frames extracted from the original video using PIPP and then the layers merged in Photoshop elements 6. Additional processing also done in Photoshop E6.
Cycle 25 Sun Spots
Transit of Mercury, 11th November 2019
Despite the poor weather our members were out in force observing the transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun, something that has to be done carefully to be safe.
White light photo by Mike Rushton taken 14:50 on 11/11/19. C8 with f/6.3 focal reducer on HEQ5 Pro. Full aperture glass solar filter Canon 60D at prime focus ISO 1600, Exp 1/400 sec.
Image by Janice McClean
Image by Martin Crow 2019-11-11 14:53UT Ha Image
Image by Honor Wheeler in White Light
Image of the Transit of Mercury 11/11/2019 by Richard Bohner
Solar Observing at Hall Place Summer 2019
A big thanks to everyone who supported both of the recent Hall Place Solar Observing events which were an exciting mixture of hide and seek as far as the sun was concerned, but both in their own way very successful.
We had sideways rain at 1100 yesterday (18th August 2019), so we set displays up indoors for about half an hour, after which we relocated outside and never looked back.
Even the sun cream got an airing!
It was very encouraging to meet a couple of extremely bright 8 year olds asking / answering some great questions – future members I’m sure.
These things don’t happen by accident so for anyone who supported the two events with equipment, transport, setting up or engaging with the public, a huge thank you.
We will be back in the Winter for the pre- and post- Christmas Stargazing events and should consider any suggestions / fresh ideas to make these as engaging and informative as possible.
Once again, your support is greatly appreciated.
John (Chair)
Solar Observing at Hall Place – August 2018
The Society were at Hall Place on Sunday 19 August 2018 showing members of the public the Sun using safe observing techniques and talking to people about Astronomy in general. Whilst there was a fair amount of cloud about and the Sun was playing ‘hide-and-seek’ Â the day was a massive success.
The Society were at Hall Place on Sunday showing members of the public the Sun using safe observing techniques and talking to people about Astronomy in general. Whilst there was a fair amount of cloud about and the Sun was playing ‘hide-and-seek’ Â the day was a massive success.
Solar Images by Martin Crow
Solar Images by Shelley Filippi
Solar Images by Simon Dawes
Solar Images by Keith Rickard
Solar Images by Julian Tworek
Andy Smith’s Solar Images
Honor Wheeler’s Solar Images
Andy Barber’s Solar Images
Solar Slideshow
Other Images
Sun | Comets | Mercury | Venus | Atmospheric Optics | Meteors | Auroa and NLC | Moon | Minor Planets | Mars | Jupiter | Saturn | Uranus | Neptune | Messier | Caldwell | All Deep Sky | Conjunctions | Transits | Solar Eclipse | Lunar Eclipse | Wide Field |ISS & Space Junk | Exo-Planets
All images are copyright. Permission must be sought to from the image owner to the use of any of these images.