A Tiny Sunspot from Fading Solar Cycle 23

Howard Eskildsen


To make these images of the solar disk in Fig. 1, I used my Meade ETX-125 telescope with an Astrosolar Photofilm full-aperture sun filter and a Nikon Coolpix 4300 digital camera attached to a ScopeTronix Maxview 40mm eyepiece with Baader Continuum and IR block filters. Currently spots are few and far between during this solar minimum. The photo was taken from the parking lot at my office near Ocala, Florida.

Figure 1. This image of the solar disk shows a tiny sunspot leftover from solar cycle 23. Photograph by Howard Eskildsen.

The close-up photo in Fig. 2 shows the spot on the same day. The number on the bottom of the photo is the active region number for this tiny spot. Instead of the Nikon and eyepiece, an Orion StarShoot II imager was used to shoot AVI, and images were stacked to get a detailed, close-up image.

Figure 2. This is a close-up view of the sunspot in Fig. 1. Photograph by Howard Eskildsen.

For more about Howard Eskildsen's solar photography, see the Editorial in this installment of The Citizen Scientist. Also, see here and search for his name on the web. Editor

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