by Rod Pommier
Location: Pommier Observatory, Portland, OR, USA.
Date & Time: 2012-07-07 20:50 UT.
Equipment: Full solar disk image. Celestron Super C8 Plus Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at f/6.3. Canon 20D. Thousand Oaks Optical full aperture type 2 solar filter. Sunspot close ups: Celestron Compustar C14 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at f/40. Point Grey Research Flea3 Color Camera. Best 300 frames for each image. The images were colorized.
After years of resolutely refusing to come out of solar minimum, the Sun is finally exhibiting nice groups of sunspots and was flanked by large groups on each limb. On 2012-07-07,as sunspot group AR1515 is about to rotate out of view on the Sun's western limb, a new, equally robust sunspot group, AR1520 rotated into view on the Sun's eastern limb. The full disk view shows their locations on the solar disk. The close up views show each of the two sunspot groups in greater detail, including notching in the umbrae and radial marks within the penumbrae. Both groups are surrounded by bright faculae in the photosphere, a type of solar feature that is more prominent near the limb, within the limb darkening effect.