Propping my arms up on the closed tailgate of my wife's truck holding the WL SUNoculars I got a view almost as steady as a tripod would give. These little instruments blew me away today. I can see at least eight active regions at only 8x!! Four numbered ones in the northern hemisphere and and least four numbered regions in the southern hemisphere. Today I am pushing the very limits of my vision!
AR13191 and AR13192 are visible in the NE quadrant near the limb. They appear to have two spots apiece though of course the low power cannot resolve the groups well. Their faculae can be seen. AR13186 well to their northwest shows as two easy large spots. AR13185 near the NW limb shows itself as a faint patch of faculae that takes a close look to see but it's certainly visible with a steady view.
AR13182 in the SW quadrant is visible as three spots though the third is tiny and difficult to see. AR13184 just east of the CLM in the SE quadrant shows itself as two easy spots in contact, touching one another. Just east of these spots is another barely visible spot. Even though not labeled as such I wonder if it is a magnetically distinct region from it's nearby neighbor. AR13188 well SE of AR13184 is barely visible. I cannot even count spots here or see anything distinct. I can just see something here. A mere elongated tiny slightly darker region. I saw it on two different occasions to verify it. It's at the very limit of my vision. AR13190 near the SE limb shows itself as a nice large dark spot with faculae. Trying to separate the umbra from the penumbra is very difficult at this low magnification. I think I can see a lighter shaded edge to the large spot but I cannot say this with certainty.
If you want a visual challenge get you a set of Lunt SUNoculars. They might surprise you!!
It's off to Lowndesville S.C. I go. I plan to image white light tomorrow if weather and errands allow.
James
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