Because it is so difficult to take pictures through the telescope in Curaçao because of the ever present strong wind I want to try to manage sketching behind the telescope. Starting during a day session is preferable so I decided to take a look at the sun. There was a sunspot visible today so that was a good opportunity.
For a long time I am thinking about acquiring an image stabilized binocular. There is in fact only one brand that comes to mind and that is Canon. And with a short vacation coming up where an image stabilized binocular could be used for eartly purposes, I once again went searching for reviews on the Internet. That is how I found the following article. The article is already dated but still worth reading. The first part of the article follows and below it a link to the original article for the remaining part.
In the past I hardly ever visited the website of Sky and Telescope. But with the newsfeed of the most interesting articles on this website I more often click on a link. And, when at the website of S&T, the attention is drawn to other articles. In this way I came accross the article to stabilize your binoculars without investing in an expensive Image Stabilized version.
Read the whole article: Image Stabilize your binoculars.
At the end of this afternoon the sunspot group 1046 (left of center in this picture) was still about the same size as in my previous observation. There is a lot of activity but that is not shown with the type of filter that I am using. On the website solarlive.nu an animation can be found of a solar flare that has been seen this morning in this group.
The first group (1045) is to the right in the picture and almost disappears over the edge. In this area there are a lot of bright (hotter) spots. Comparable hot spotes can also been seen at the left side in the picture; so it is probable that this is the first sight of a new group.
Chis has also looked at the sun with his telescope and he mentions:
"I have looked on Wednesday afternoon; I have seen 7 sunspots at about 30 degrees South and 7 sunspots at 30 degrees Northern longitude. Lattitude for both groups is about the same. Certainly worth a look. It is several years ago that I have seen such a large group. Apparently the minimum in solar activity in the 11 year cycle is passed".
