A solar starfish and some big spots

Just like a starfish, sunspot AR11690, has grown back on of its arms. The filament on the left collapsed yesterday producing a C2 flare and coronal mass ejection, but today it's grown back. Also today some bigg spots are turning onto the disc from the east. Click on each image to see a more detailed view.

Dave Gradwell

Solar activity and a filament collapse

The top image shows the collapse of a magnetic filament that occurred today. You can see that the left hand "snake" has disappeared by 11:07 and replaced by bright areas of flaring (a C2 size). Also on the Sun today were a few nice prominences. Seeing wasn't great but it was nice to be out imaging again.

CME - Moment of impact

The graph below shows the moment when a piece of the Sun hit the Earth earlier today. Picked up by my magnetometer, it shows how the Earths magnetic field shook from the impact. This called a sudden impulse. On my live data page www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html it appears as a tiny "nick" at about 17:30UT.  This may signify some aurora later.

Dave Gradwell

Low level aurora visible

Earth is entering a medium speed solar wind which has sparked off auroral display across northern Europe. At present northern lights have been seen as far south as the north coast of Ireland. Keep checking my magnetometer www.davegradwell.com/magnetometer.html and my new HAMCam www.davegradwell.com/hamcam.html for signs of aurora.

Dave Gradwell

Introducing HAMCam

A project I'm calling High Atmosphere Monitoring Camera. This will monitor the northern
horizon 24 hrs a day. It uses sebectecs neat webcam software that among other things
knows when to change to nighttime long exposures. The camera will monitor for aurora and noctillucent
cloud during the night and will be a weather cam during the day. Tests are still ongoing and it's final positioning has yet to be decided so it will be "on and off" over the next few weeks. www.davegradwell.com/hamcam.html

DaveG

Welcome to 2013 - M1.7 flare

The Sun belatedly welcomed in the new year with some fireworks of its own. A large M1.7 flare was released today at 09:30 UT and was picked up by my solar flare monitor. Hopefully this will be a sign of increased activity. The Sun has been extremely quiet of late prompting some solar astronomers to say that solar maximum has already peaked.

Dave Gradwell

An even bigger flare today

Sunspot 1618 has really brought the Sun to life. Today it unleashed a large M3.5 solar flare, bigger than either of yesterdays flares. There is a slim hope that this spot may yet unleash an X sized eruption. Any CMEs ejected from these flares may result in displays of the Northern Lights....... stay tuned. Data below from my solar flare monitor, daytime live data at www.davegradwell.com/solarflares.html

Dave Gradwell