Moving across the face of the Sun right now is a massive sunspot, given the innocuous name "Sunspot 1339." This sunspot is approximately 17 times the size of the Earth and harbors the strong magnetic fields that are capable of producing X-class solar flares - the type that generate brilliant northern lights on Earth and sometimes threaten satellites in orbit. Viewing this through the little 4.5-inch telescope I have here using a solar filter, I took a picture of it by holding my digital camera up to the eyepiece:
Though it's a bit blurry (the camera autofocuses and I couldn't get it any better without owning a digital SLR), the massive sunspot group is clearly visible. Compare this to the image on
www.spaceweather.com.
I came across a small color CCD camera made by Meade among the equipment up at the observatory and decided that it might be light enough to test out on this small telescope. However, it has been a struggle to get it to produce sharp images and without the ability to track an object steadily the target continually moves through the field of view. Jupiter's moons were clearly visible through the telescope but no image could be taken where the points of light weren't stretched into streaks. However, I did get a decent image of the Moon:
Short post today. After all...it's the weekend :-)
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