Positions of the Sun through the year

Monthly Sun Data at Sasteria Crete

Sunspots & Faculae & Wolfnumber R & Becknumber Re’ & Pettis Index SN

How big can a sunspot be?

This picture (under) will give you an idea, the Sunspot  NOAA 1029 is a member of new Solar Cycle 24. October 29 2009

The sunspot's large dark core is about the size of Earth, while the entire sunspot group stretches about 50,000km from end to end.

Drawing made of the sunspot NOAA 1029 at Sasteria.

Compare the picture from 1 day later and you already will see changes in the penumbrae en the amount of sunspots.

Observation made with the Maksutov 6” f12 and solar glas filter.

For the scientific data look at http://sidc.oma.be/index.php or at http://www.digilife.be/club/franky.dubois/ for Belgium.

If you want to download the Pdf and Excel files  from White light observations, then contact Sasteria  for more details.

Data visible:

R- The Wolfnumber / R’- The Becknumber / SN- The pettisnumber / N- Observation days (1-31) / Q- Seeing SIDC scale (0-5)

How to find N-S-E-W direction on the sun through the year.

Use this picture at the telescope to find the 4 points on the solar disk.

When you don’t have a GOTO mount then the sun will move in East to West direction through the field of the eyepiece. Be aware that those directions are seen from the Earth. So we need to make a adjustment through the year as we move in orbit around the Sun.

Only then we can be sure where the sunspots are on the solar disk.

N-S and E-W can be different depending what type of telescope you are using.

Use this grid to find the necessary degrees to adjust the N-S and E-W direction on your sun disk drawing.