Huge sunspot AR 1944

Sunspot region AR1944 is the large grouping towards the bottom of the picture with the smaller AR1946 at the top.

The new year greets us with a beautiful sunspot region with one of the biggest sunspots of this solar cycle, AR1944. It is also a very highly charged area that has the potential to throw some solar storm activity our way so aurora watchers should keep an eye out.

AR1944 covers a large area with numerous dark cores and the largest of them could hold 3 planet Earths. It is so big it can be seen with the unaided human eye at sunrise or sunset although it is well worth noting that to view the Sun without appropriate protection such as a dedicated solar filter can cause permanent damage to your eyes so please do take care when trying to catch a glimpse of the Sun.

I captured these white light shots of the Sun with AR1944 proudly on display on the 6th of January 2014. I used a full aperture Baader Solar photographic film ND3.8(strictly not for visual use) on my 150mm reflector shot with my Canon 450D. It is a stack of 54 single exposures to build up the detail.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!