Solar Section
Director: Richard Bailey

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SPA SOLAR SECTION

OCTOBER 2011

Rotation Nos. 2115, 2116

 

 

    The number of AR’s was good with 8 or 9 often seen in the first three weeks, with a maximum of 10 on the 20^th., recorded by Brian Gordon-States. He had weather fine enough to observe on 29days in Surrey. AR numbers dropped away in the last 5 days with 3 at the end. Again, the NH was more active by about a factor of two over that in the SH. that hemisphere being without any AR’s from the 27^th. Maximum R number in the month was 146 on the 15^th, (Lee Macdonald ) and 21^st. ( Brian ).   For some observers, they had the hottest October day on record on the 1^st. Alan Heath observed only weak faculae on a few days out of his 29days near Nottingham.

 

Week 1. 

    The AR’s spread across the NH at the end of September were on show,

NH AR1392 still the strongest but decaying during the week. Two small SH AR’s were seen.

 

Week 2.

    A burst of activity in both hemispheres in the second half . with some strong AR’s . NH AR1319 was a stretch of mainly small sunspots with NH AR1314 above and SH AR1316 below it. 9 AR’s were seen on the 10^th. and 13^th.

 

Week 3.

    Gradually the most active areas of both hemispheres went westwards, by the 16^th past the CM, whenAR1319 had more than 30 individual sunspots. On the 18^th. NH AR1324 was just showing by the E limb, being in full view on the 20^th. as a long collection of 21 mixed sunspots. as the main NH AR1310 got close to the W limb. Alan Heath, on the 16^th. at 1450UT, had his finest view of sunspots in many years of observing when the seeing suddenly improved to near-perfect. It was impossible to draw all the details but was a sight to remember.

 

Week 4 to the end of the month.

   9 AR’s were counted on the 21^st. mainly in the NH. As NH AR1324 neared the CM SH AR1320 appeared by the E limb. A good AR matched near the W limb by SH AR1327.   Activity fell then away from 9 AR’s to 3 by the end of the month, all then in the NH leaving the SH empty.

 

    Peter Paice’s photographs again showed much detail in white light, H-a and Calcium wavelengths . Brian Woosnam ditto in white light and H-a.

Dale Holt’s drawing on the 18^th. of AR’s 1314 and 1319 caught their splendour well.

 

      

 

MDF   6.03       R   87.57

 

 

 The MDF for prominencies was about the same as the two previous months, but for AR’s and R they had continued increasing. Flaring was not so frequent, but large and varied prominencies were often seen, Smaller ones were seen on each observation by Section members with H-A filter systems.

 Lee watched a small limb flare in progress on the 1^st at 1150-1155 UT, Alan on the 18^th. one near the W limb at 0840UT. A finely detailed prominence stood out in the SE on the 2^nd. and 3^rd. heading a tail of smaller sections. Ian Lee counted 12 prominence groups on the 7^th.,one on the E limb with a long chain of ejected material . A large, delicate triangular structure projected in the NW on the 11^th. The 18^th. showed a mixed clustering almost the length of the western perimeter. Filaments and plaging accompanied the larger AR’s, a strong, long filament stretched W from NH AR1314 from the 14^th. to the 19^th when the AR had reached the W limb.

Ian’s immaculate drawings and detailed noted again provided a fine record of his observations.

 

 

MDF 4.96

 

 

 A warm welcome to the Section to Michael Fullerton, just getting to grips with the art of solar observing and recording , and Es Read, another fine photographer in H-a.

 

  

 Observers :      Michael Fullerton    Es Read   Alan Heath   Peter Paice   Ian Lee

                         Brian Gordon-States    Lee Macdonald    Malin Keal

                         Brian Woosnam     Dale Holt   and the Director.