viewed huge sunspots

We viewed the Sun!

I really enjoyed this. First time in a long time...

So wanted to do this given all the recent interesting activity on the Sun's surface. 

We were not disappointed.

Despite wispy clouds, I set up the Coronado SolarMax on the Tele Vue 101 and the Oberwerk binoculars with my old custom white light filter.

We observed many sunspots in the binos. We observed many prominences (while small) along the perimeter, filaments within the disc, and a lot of mottling around the active sunspot regions.

I pulled the current image from the SpaceWeather web site.

I observed all the Active Regions including the one at the 8 o'clock position. [ed: Later numbered 3001.]

I helped Bri with photos with her smartphone with the iOptron adapter. It worked well. She really appreciated that. All shot with a Samsung smartphone, 4mm (equivalent 26), ISO-80, manual exposure, auto white balance, f/1.5.

Fast exposure. 1/750 second.

Medium exposure. 1/350 second. You can see a prom at 5 o'clock.

Long exposure. 1/30 second. More spots visible.

I also encouraged Grace to make an entry in her astronomy log book!