The Sun and Sunspot AR2665

Posted in Astro Photography, Nikon, Photography, Solar, Sun, SunspotsTagged , , , , ,

Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I read at Spaceweather.com over the week-end that the latest sunspot AR2665 was HUGE, and the biggest sunspot of 2017 so, not having photographed the Sun for sometime I thought it would be interesting to make an image of this Sunspot on the Sun.  I dug out my solar filter then Monday morning set up my camera in the backyard and waited for the morning sun to climb above the mountain tops.   I cropped this image in 25% so we can see the spot a bit better.

Sun July 10, 2017 with Sunspot AR2665

“Sunspot AR2665 has grown into a behemoth almost as wide as the planet Jupiter: Stretching more than 125,000 km from end to end and containing dozens of dark cores, the active region is an now easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Sunspot AR2665 has a ‘beta-gamma’ magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class solar flares.. “~http://spaceweather.com/

I’ll add you can see it with a Telephoto lens, and Solar filter.  Caveat: Don’t ever attempt to photograph the sun without a Solar Filter. You can permanently damage your eyes, and your camera’s sensor.

M-Class Solar Flares are Medium sized flares. They can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth’s polar regions.

I use an Orion 4.10″ ID Full Aperture Solar Filter. It fits snugly over my lens allowing me to look directly at the sun and photograph it by blocking  99.999% of incoming sunlight for safe observation and astrophotography.  I’ve had this filter for several years and it’s worked perfectly, and is easy to use.  It fits my 300mm f/4 perfectly. It slides over my 200-500mm’s 82mm front end element, but not so far that I’m able to secure it with the screws so, to make sure it wouldn’t fall off I taped it to my lens barrel.  Gaffers tape or Painters tape works.

I linked to the filter so you can check it out if you’re interested. I am not affiliated with Orion and do not receive any compensation or products for using their products or mentioning them.  

Nikon Df| Nikkor 200-500mm @500mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 2017

more to come…

 

 

 

26 thoughts on “The Sun and Sunspot AR2665”

  1. This was much bigger than I expected, Deborah! This size was big enough, I just could not believe my eyes! 🙂 Thank you for warning people and doing the proper care so you don’t hurt your beautiful eyesight. xo 💖

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  6. After I cleaned the dirt of off my computer screen, I could see the actual sunspot vs the miscellaneous stuff 😉
    To see the spot that clearly, (a) it must be huge, (b) your zoom lens is amazing 🙂

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  10. Another great sky shot, Deborah. I think you’ve mentioned an app that you use to help you find information about the sky. I poked around (I thought you mentioned it reently) but I couldn’t find it. Do you use an app?

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    1. Thank you so much Dan!
      Apps for I use to help me plot, plan star, sun, and moon images are:
      Photographer’s Epheremis : the desktop version is free, the cell phone app costs $$

      PhotoPills- cell phone app $$

      …and a free desktop called Stellarium

      Hope that helps!

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