With each passing day the sun gets higher and higher in the sky, and with seasonally high pressure sat over the UK this weekend allowed an opportunity to get a view of our star, It will only be a couple of weeks until the sun is clear of of my winter tree lined horizon. Till then it is a case of grabbing the gaps between the trees, and this Sunday afternoon allowed just that. The sun seems at first glance blank, but in the north east quadrant a emerging flux region shows itself as a bright point, and is likely to develop as an active region as is already showing pores in white light. Polar filaments in the northern hemisphere are already a proxy of cycle 25, and on the south western limb a flame prominence was very evident. The disk was taken with a Lunt 50 etalon on a 60mm f6 scope, double stacked with a Daystar Quark and imaged using a GH3 camera.
Check out this animation, showing activity from the SDO AIA304 channel. Look at the 10 o'clock position how a small emerging flux region develops. Given the latitude my money is on it being cycle 25...
Cycle 25 activity seems to becoming more prevalent, and over the last 24 hours or so, and in the north western quadrant of the sun an emerging flux region soon developed into an active region (AR12756?). This animation from the AIA1600 data shows the spot formation quite well.
Noticed on the STEREO animation from today looks like something is going to round the limb fairly soon. It's currently at -100 or so longitude, and it's equatorial position suggests cycle 24. You can see something in the field lines in the corona in the AIA171 image too at the inferred position.
Keep your eyes peeled folks, we may have another sunspot...
AR12755 from cycle 25 is still visible as an active region with sunspot but activity is declining, as the main spot can seen to be divided by a light bridge, which is a usual indicator of decay. This image is from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, but for amateurs it is still visible as a bright area in Hydrogen Alpha, and the plage will remain visible in CaK light for many days to come.
2020 is upon us, and as the world wakes to a new decade, we also wake up to a new sunspot from cycle 25, no sooner had AR12753 faded this new sunspot rounded the limb in the solar southern hemisphere. Given the southern hemisphere has this activity first, it will be interesting to see what the lag with the northern hemisphere following will be, this also leads to the likely possibility of cycle 25 being double peaked as cycle 24 was. This asymmetry on average could numerically result in solar cycles on paper being weaker, however if both hemispherical peaks coincided this would result in the solar cycle again being numerically stronger. We will have to see over the coming years as to how this all pans out.
