As the Sun Turns: Solar Minimums and Maximums

[Luke]

A couple times I had the opportunity to view the sun through a solar telescope. Seeing how it appeared at the time was very interesting

[Maria]

A couple times I had the opportunity to view the sun through a solar telescope. Seeing how it appeared at the time was very interesting

Were you visiting an observatory? When I was a child, we took several educational vacations where we traveled to observatories across the USA. We saw the one in Colorado on the continental divide. I remember that one because It was so high that we developed nose bleeds on the road there. Even in June, the observatory was still covered with snow and the temperature was chilly. We also saw the one in Arizona, although it was so hot, I do not remember much of the details. I do remember that we were ushered into an area where the public rarely goes. Inside the huge observatory, the person in charge moved the telescope to a new location, while we heard and saw the motors moving it. Then we took turns viewing the images.

After I had graduated from high school, we took another trip across the USA. We left the SF Bay Area and headed to Sacrament then into Reno, Nevada, finally into Arizona from Las Vegas, Nevada where we experienced a terrific wind storm. Then we headed to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, which still had snow on the ground in the upper elevations. From there, we traveled through some beautiful landscapes to see the massive observatory in Arizona, although I remember little of that since I had had an accident and had to be treated at the local emergency room. In one area of either New Mexico or Arizona, we had to make a pit stop in the middle of nowhere because there were no public restrooms. My brother accidentally sat too close to a cactus, so we had to make another emergency room visit to have the needles removed. All he wanted was some privacy and shade. At least he did not get a rattlesnake or scorpion bite too.

http://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Cactus-Needles

[Luke]

The solar telescope was not at an observatory. An astronomy club has a small observatory with portable telescopes and one or two up to 30" at a recreational area about 147 miles from where I live. They have a small solar telescope which I looked through either two or three times in my life.
In the past, I visited the observatory on Mauna Kea back in 1996, but there were no telescopes around to view with. I think scientists would prefer visitors not come up there. A few years ago I visited Mt. Palomar and saw the big telescope through a window, but again nothing on the side to view through.

[Luke]

Although I have been to a couple big observatories, I am a bit jealous that you got to see the sky in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. I think you were very fortunate to get to do some viewing from there.

[Maria]

Although I have been to a couple big observatories, I am a bit jealous that you got to see the sky in Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. I think you were very fortunate to get to do some viewing from there.

I was so young that the importance of these scientific trips did not impress me. My dad who was working for the University of California at Berkeley as an astrophysicist and professor wrote and phoned ahead to guarantee that we could see these observatories in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and others, but I was more concerned about reaching our ultimate destination, Georgia, where my grandparents lived. My grandfather was very sick with cancer and was not expected to survive more than one month. We made it just in time.

Also, at that time, I was more into the study of entomology in my biology high school classes, so throughout our journey in the southern states of the USA, I had amassed such a huge insect collection that I earned an A in my upper division college class in entomology. At that time, TSA did not exist, so on the return trip home, I as able to take my canisters of cyanide (to kill insects) with me through the terminals. I held the insect collections on my lap, carefully guarding them.

[Maria]

And we had another M1.3 class flare. This one was from the sunspots clustered in Active Region 2665.

Notice that this M1.3 blasted Australia. No wonder these people down under have had a dramatic increase in skin cancers.
Being outside during one of these intense solar flares will burn the skin.

By the way, back in 2013, my husband and I were standing outside for several hours during one of these solar events. We were during some shopping locally, but ran out of gas as our gas gauge was not working properly. A rapidly developing sunspot area suddenly became unstable and unleashed an X-class solar flare, which was a great surprise to almost everyone. We did not need to view the internet; we knew what had happened as all of a sudden, the sky seemed unusually bright, the radio started to crackle, our cell phones were not working properly, and we felt the sun scorch our skin.

SOLAR FLARE AND RADIO BLACKOUT: Sunspot AR2665 has grown into a behemoth almost as wide as the planet Jupiter. Stretching more than 125,000 km from end to end and containing dozens of dark cores, the active region is an now easy target for backyard solar telescopes. Amateur astronomer Peter Desypris sends this July 9th photo from Syros island, Greece:

"This is the biggest sunspot of 2017 so far," says Desypris. "I photographed it using an 8'inch LX200 telescope and a safe solar filter."

On July 9th at 0318 UT the big sunspot erupted, producing an M1.3-class solar flare. Telescopes onboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded the explosion's extreme ultraviolet flash:

UV and X-radiation from the flare bathed the top of Earth's atmosphere on the dayside of our planet. Ions produced by this electromagnetic pulse altered the normal propagation of shortwave radio transmissions over east Asia and Australia. This radio blackout map from NOAA shows the geographical regions affected. People who might have noticed blackouts, fades, and other transmission irregularities include aviators, mariners, and ham radio operators.

reference: http://www.spaceweather.com

[Maria]

AR2665, a huge Beta-Gama active area, and the only active area on the solar disc, is now geoeffective.
Click the li9nk below to see a video of its transit across the sun.

http://www.spaceweather.com/images2017/ ... 50drg7hb02

Within the next 24 to 48 hours, NOAA forecasts a 25 percent chance of an M-Class solar flare, which can do considerable damage because our magnetic shield is down now that we are in a solar minimum. NOAA also predicts a five percent chance of an X-class solar flare, which could cause even more damage.

This means if we were to have a solar flare, and if a Coronal Mass Ejection were to strike us, that CME could interfere with communications and affect our energy and power infrastructures. So far, perhaps miraculously, we have been spared. Although historically, the Carrington Event shows the power of a direct CME.

http://www.history.com/news/a-perfect-s ... gton-event

The Carrington Event
On the morning of September 1, 1859, amateur astronomer Richard Carrington ascended into the private observatory attached to his country estate outside of London. After cranking open the dome’s shutter to reveal the clear blue sky, he pointed his brass telescope toward the sun and began to sketch a cluster of enormous dark spots that freckled its surface. Suddenly, Carrington spotted what he described as “two patches of intensely bright and white light” erupting from the sunspots. Five minutes later the fireballs vanished, but within hours their impact would be felt across the globe.

That night, telegraph communications around the world began to fail; there were reports of sparks showering from telegraph machines, shocking operators and setting papers ablaze. All over the planet, colorful auroras illuminated the nighttime skies, glowing so brightly that birds began to chirp and laborers started their daily chores, believing the sun had begun rising. Some thought the end of the world was at hand, but Carrington’s naked eyes had spotted the true cause for the bizarre happenings: a massive solar flare with the energy of 10 billion atomic bombs. The flare spewed electrified gas and subatomic particles toward Earth, and the resulting geomagnetic storm—dubbed the “Carrington Event”—was the largest on record to have struck the planet. ...