Huge Sunspot group 1339, Solar Flare M 4.3

reply to post by GaryN


grrrr, over here it is just fog and clouds, and more forecasted for the next week, So I can't even look at the beautiful sunspots, but there should be a lot more by the time this solar-max cycle is over, so hold onto your hats, gentlemen, we should have some real beauties during the next year.... Last solar max we didn't even have half of the nice tools we have now...

I guess SOHO is also coming to the end of it's lifespan, heck it was launched 17 years ago, and some people still complain about it's capabilities.... (I guess it is older than a number of PPL on ATS, lol)

reply to post by Hellhound604

Well, the ISS crew shouldn't have to worry about clouds or fog, and at some point in their orbit they must have an unobstructed view of the Sun, so if it was me up there, I'd want a photo. Can't find any. Can it be done?

reply to post by GaryN


Not sure what equipment they have up there, but you can take pictures yourself. The easiest is to get a mylar filter (Baader Planetarium has very good ones) and cover your camera lens. Also learn how to aim your camera without looking at it, look at the shadow of your camera. You can also make a small hole in a black paper sheet, and project the resulting image on a white piece of paper, and then photograph it. (some ppl will kill me for saying this, but if you use it over your camera it shoud be OK, just not in front of you binocs, or telescope... you get some types of tea in which the tea is in a shiny, mylar bag, and years ago I have used it with some satisfaction on my camera, but you have to be careful with it. Use 2 layers at least, and NEVER look through it at the sun, and then there are are pre-exposed film , or you can use exposed x-ray films. Use it in front of your camera, and play with exposure, but NEVER, EVER use those films in front of your binocs. ). Baader film comes in a sheet that you can cut to go over your camera lens, or binoculars, etc .... if you want to see more, you can buy a Ha-solar telescope, they are affordable nowadays....

www.baader-planetarium.com...

here are some tips for safely looking at the sun
solar-center.stanford.edu...

Not sure what equipment they have up there,

From what I see, they got still and video cameras coming out their ying-yangs. I don't see why they wouldn't have proper filters, but like you say, pretty simple to roll your own. Could you video the Sun from there too, never seen a video of the Sun.

reply to post by GaryN


yes, you can video the sun too. that is one way to get rid of atmospheric abberations, you film the sun through your filter for a couple of seconds, then you use a freeware program called registax or others , to combine your video clip into a single photo, with a lot higher resolution than a single image.... If you take a single image, it is nearly always disappointing, but if you run your movie through stacker, the image can almost approach that taken by very expensive satellites. It is still a broad-band picture though, so you can't clearly see the granulations, etc, but it gives you a nice image....

Neat. But can it be done from the ISS, that's what I'm trying to find.
Heres a transcript of some shoolkids talking with the ISS in 2004.

Q. Are you able to see and measure sunspots from the International Space Station?
A: Crystal, can we measure sunspots from the ISS, and that's a good experiment to perform. Unfortunately today, I do not know why, we are not measuring them from the International Space station. Over

An interesting experiment? Since when is taking a photo an experiment? Or what kind of other experiment would that be? And where are any results? Strange.

reply to post by GaryN


of course they can do it from ISS, but then, if they are scheduled to do it, that is another issue. I think they have a lot of other experiments to do, than taking pics of the sun, for which we have SOHO, and lots of other solar observatories to do. I would also venture a guess asking somebody on the ISS to take some pics of the sun, would be way too expensive... they basically do experiments that can't be done on earth, in 0-G. They don't take pictures of the stars too, for that we have Hubble and lots of other observatories. Maybe you can befriend a local ISS astronaut, and ask him to take some pictures for you

reply to post by Hellhound604

The ISS crew has free time, and there are observation ports with some very expensive glass. Maybe they need permission to take pictures of the Sun? I don't believe that nobody, over the entire life of the ISS, has not wanted to take a photo.
I have tried to befriend an ISS crew member to find out about some photos, but they will not tell me who took the photos, let alone the camera or exposure settings. I guess I keep forgetting that the ISS is a military project for the most part, so maybe everything is on a 'need to know' basis?

From last update we have two solar flare M class from same sunspot group AR 1339 ..

New sunspot is now in view ..

Sunspot group AR 1339 are slowly decreases ..

We have one more big sunspot in view ..

Some low M class solar flare in last days, it's more peaceful than active what is good news but strong stream is present all time ..

We don't have stronger CME's or solar wind but stream and position of that "AR 1339 belt" is dangerous too, explanation in post below ..

www.abovetopsecret.com...







This one taken before 72 hrs, 40 hrs and last one is latest ..

reply to post by Dalke07


Thanks for the photo updates.
It's nice to see the changes happening.
It would be a cool idea, for a bit study, to post a series of photos of the region before and after a big flare.
I don't have that much time lately, but maybe in a couple of days i will go through the data and try it out.
Maybe we can discover something or find some connections...

AR1339 still decreasing same thing for activity, group is Earth directed now but all activity on Sun are very peaceful ..

We have new sunspots coming in our view but Sun sleeping last days, it's be interesting to see how mach time Sun stay in that mode ..

Last months strongest activity are mostly on back side of the Sun and when bigger sunspots or active area come in our direction they mostly lose power what is very good thing for Earth ..

Sun is still very peaceful, hope it stay in that mode ..

Go0d for us because we have many sunspots in Earth direction ..

www.swpc.noaa.gov...

We have one solar flare M 1.1 from sunspot 1342 and will be Earth directed in two days, 1339 is still very peaceful ..

CME from that eruption have low chance to be Earth directed and produce some low geomagnetic storm ..

reply to post by Dalke07


It's a long duration event, probably followed by a CME.
Parts of the cme will hit earth according to it's position.
Still waiting for some data on direction and speed.

Only update from STEREO B for now ..

We have plasma arrow from that solar flare M 1.1, you can see where is Earth in video ..

Excellent video in any way, thanks to00 "Skyywatcher88" ..





Some eruption from 7 June, 2011..

June 7, 2011 - Solar Flare / CME - [WITH DUBSTEP]

Some LASCO C3 images ..

Here we can see where CME moving ..

This one miss Earth like that video very clearly shows ..

AR 1339 is still very peaceful, sunspot group is moving away from our direction ..

Sun activity also still peaceful ..

Sunspot 1342 have some activity and some possibility for CME ..

Expect some medium geomagnetic storm from yesterday solar flare M1.1, from that speedy CME the main "stream" is not in our direction and is mach above but will "catch" us a little ..

iswa.gsfc.nasa.gov:8080...

reply to post by Dalke07


You bored mate?
Always nice to her DP though.
This one is more appropriate, no?hehe