ZWO Seestar s50 in solar mode to capture the sun's sunspots today, Friday 8/9/24:
337 (+95) total sunspots today! This is a record amount, surpassing 285 back in 1958.
One sunspot, AR3780 (AR13780), is so big, you can see it without magnification, just put on solar eclipse glasses. It's comprised of 128 sunspots (+25 more than yesterday) covering 1280mH (30mH bigger than yesterday) which is ~7.5x area of Earth! So far today it has produced 3 solar flares: 2 M-class flares (M1.4 and M0.9) and one C-class flare (C7.4). It has a 15% chance to produce an X-class flare and a 5% chance to produce a proton flare!
Other Sunspot Cluster AKA Active Regions:
AR3772 (AR13772) has 12 sunspots covering 320mH (~1.8x area of Earth). It has a 75% chance of producing at least a c-class flare & 25% M-class.
AR3774 (AR13774) has 46 sunspots covering 440mH (~1.4x area of Earth). It has a 85% chance of producing at least a c-class flare, 35% M-class, 10% X-class.
AR3777 (AR13777) has 20 sunspots covering 210mH (~1.3x area of Earth). It has a 60% chance of producing at least a c-class flare & 15% M-class.
AR3780 (AR13780) has 40 sunspots covering 1220mH (~7.2x area of Earth). It has a 90% chance of producing at least a c-class flare, 50% M-class & 15% X-class.
AR3781 (AR13781) has 2 sunspots covering 120mH (~0.7x area of Earth). It has a 20% chance of producing at least a c-class flare & 5% M-class.
AR3773 (AR13773), AR3775 (AR13775) & AR3776 (AR13776) are 50mH or smaller.
Area of sunspots are measured in millionths of a solar hemisphere (MH).
For updates on today's Sun flares, visit:
www.spaceweatherlive.com
Daily Sunspots is a series of short videos that document the spots on the sun every day that it's possible from my location. Generally, 10-30 seconds of RAW video is captured, and images are then stacked to create a more detailed final image.
What are Sunspots?- Sunspots arise from magnetic disturbances that change how the outer layers of the sun regionally mix, uncovering cooler spots that appear darker on the surface of the sun.
What's the point?- Sunspots and sunspot clusters are part of solar active regions (AR). We track active regions on the sun because they can cause solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME). Particles ejected from CMEs can hit the Earth several hours later (generally 15-18h) and cause aurora, and large solar storms can do damage to electronics, our electrical grid and satellites. Plus, sunspots look cool, and they are huge! Some can be several times the size of Earth.
Why should I care?- The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking on 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were reported globally and caused sparking and even fires in telegraph stations. A geomagnetic storm of this magnitude occurring today has the potential to cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts, damage and human deaths due to extended cuts of the electrical power grid. A Carrington-class event today would result in between $0.6 and $2.6 trillion in damages to the U.S. alone.
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Sun Observation- I try to post daily updates relatively early in the day so that others that have interest can see what's going on. I have heard from some other solar astronomers that they appreciate these short videos to see whether or not it's worth getting out their Hydrogen-alpha (H-alpha, Ha) solar telescopes, and it also gives them a preview of the sunspots and active regions.
Pino Astro: Astronomy for Everyone!
