On 8th May one of members posted on our Facebook group that there was a sunspot group visible to the naked eye using simple eclipse glasses. This was quickly confirmed by members using cameras and then telescopes fitted with specialised filters.
Always use solar glasses or filters when viewing the Sun to protect your camera equipment and more importantly your eyes from permanent damage.
The image on the left was taken on 8th May with a DSLR and 600mm lens fitted with a white light filter similar to those used in eclipse glasses. The image on the right was taken by capturing video through a 66mm refractor and a dedicated astronomical camera on a tracking mount using a higher quality sophisticated filter. The video was “stacked” to produce a single detailed image. The images were taken at slightly different times so the orientation of the Sun is different.
According to Space Weather Live, the naked eye group is made up of AR3668 the upper group of 5 sunspots and AR3664 the lower group of 62 sunspots.
This sunspot group threw out streams of charged particles that connected with the Earth’s magnetic field on Friday 10th May and the Northern Lights were visible over the UK and even further South.
The image on the right is approximately how the view looked to the naked eye, but the images in cameras were far more impressive and so we have created a dedicated gallery for our members pictures.
Image Credit: Danny Thomas
