Is it possible to see Sunspots appear and disappear in real time?

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Solarscout
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Is it possible to see Sunspots appear and disappear in real time?

Post by Solarscout »

If you are observing at a fortunate timing, could you ever see a sunspot in the process of appearing and disappearing? or does the "birth" and "death" of sunspots take place over several hours and overnight and then you see something different when the Sun rotates overnight?

I could try to note what I see on the Sun in the morning and then again in the Evening to see how much it changed. Compare that to the next day and see if sunspots change more during the day or overnight


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DeepSolar64
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Re: Is it possible to see Sunspots appear and disappear in real time?

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Yes, it is possible to see sunspots form and disappear. The time they take to form varies and they usually start as pores or clusters of pores. The longer you watch the more you can see. The time can take mere hours or even days. But one thing is for sure, the Sun is always changing. The best way to see the changes in sunspots is do do an image animation. Animations are often taken over minutes to hours and show it in sped-up playback in a very short time, usually in seconds to minutes in what happens in hours in realtime. Changes in sunspots, filaments, prominences, granulation, etc are shown very well in this way, without the long waiting at an eyepiece observing changes over time. Flares are one thing that happens fast enough to see well in a very short time, only mere minutes, behind an eyepiece.

Anyway...

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Re: Is it possible to see Sunspots appear and disappear in real time?

Post by christian viladrich »

In addition, some definitions :
- a sunspot is an umbra surrounded by a penombra,
- a pore is only made of umbra,
Pores are much smaller than sunspots, and can appear or disappear in a matter of minutes (say 10 min).


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Re: Is it possible to see Sunspots appear and disappear in real time?

Post by marktownley »

How long are you going to watch for? :D


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Re: Is it possible to see Sunspots appear and disappear in real time?

Post by Solarscout »

about a few minutes each time through the course of a day, monitoring it every now and then. But my 114mm reflector may not be able to see pores visually in the eyepiece


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Re: Is it possible to see Sunspots appear and disappear in real time?

Post by DeepSolar64 »

Solarscout wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2023 7:15 am about a few minutes each time through the course of a day, monitoring it every now and then. But my 114mm reflector may not be able to see pores visually in the eyepiece
Your 114mm reflector should show most pores visually. Some may require high magnification though.


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