Sunspot (ahem) #69, 2002/8/15

Date: 2002/8/15
Time: 14:40 to 14:55 UT
Location: 10 km east of Harrisburg, PA, USA
Instrument: 114mm f/7.9 Celestron C4.5 Newtonian
Oculars: 26mm Tele Vue Ploessl (35x), 17mm Tele Vue Ploessl (53x),
12.5mm Edscorp ortho (72x), 11mm Tele Vue Ploessl (82x)
Conditions: 30 degrees Celsius, 1008 millibars, high cirrus cloud cover

Sunspot #69 was easily visible to my optically unaided eyes through polymer solar eclipse shades on Thursday morning. Through my C4.5 this huge sunspot appeared to have a roughly triangular umbra, which somewhat resembled a Hershey's Kiss, and a very large penumbral region. There was a chain of small spots near the central meridian as well as a sprinkling of additional sunspots.

See http://www.spaceweather.com/images2002/16aug02/midi512_blank.gif for a current solar image.

Dave Mitsky

A friend that I work with commented thursday morning, that he noticed a sun spot while driving to work. You see it's been really foggy here in southern california in the mornings. I told him not to look at the sun even when it's foggy but the point is he noticed your "naked eye" sun spot as well I just told him about your post so he knows he's not totaly crazy : )

Because of your post I dusted off the 80mm F11 and Baader filter to take a look today. This spot is huge!! Probably the biggest I have observed this solar max. I could only make out some of the finer detail at times because of the high, thin sirrus floating through but it still was an incredible sight.

I'll be trying to keep an eye on this one for the next few days.

Thanks for the post, Robert W.