HUGE Active Region NOAA AR2396
Taken by John W. O'Neal, II on August 7, 2015 @
Amherst, Ohio, USA
Click photo for larger image
| |
Camera Used: Unavailable Unavailable
Exposure Time: Unavailable
Aperture: Unavailable
ISO: Unavailable
Date Taken: Unavailable
|
|
| More images
Details:
The rapid growth of sunspot AR2396 is continuing. Yesterday it was huge. Today it is 50% larger.
The growing sunspot group stretches more than 150,000 km from end to end. All by itself, the primary dark core is more than three times the size of Earth. These dimensions make AR2396 an easy target for backyard solar telescopes and/or even naked eye observations, with safe shielding.
Of even greater interest is the sunspot's 'beta-gamma' magnetic field, which is invisible to the human eye but nevertheless harbors energy for powerful explosions. NOAA forecasters estimate a 40% to 55% chance of M-class flares this weekend. Any such explosion will surely be geoeffective as the sunspot is directly facing Earth.
Here is the Active Region as seen from my backyard Observatory in Amherst, Ohio, in White Light, Calcium-K and both ends of the Hydrogen Alpha Spectrum.
Photographer's website:
http://https://www.facebook.com/groups/solaractivity/
|
|
|
