| Observer | Dave Staples |
|---|---|
| Date | 3 April 2001 |
| Time | 12:15-13:10 PDT |
| Location | Petaluma, Ca |
| Weather | Cool and breezy |
| Equip | C8 with Baader full aperture filter, 40mm and 26mm plossls, 2x barlow |
| Seeing | 8/10 |
I packed the scope into the truck this morning hoping it would be clear enough to do some solar observing over lunch. I wasn't disappointed. I counted 8 groups of spots. 2 large groups, one on the northeast limb and one on the southwest limb with most of the groups concentrated on the western side.
Just to make sure of the orientation, I am using a SCT scope with a star diagonal which I think puts north up and east to the right. Please correct me if I am wrong. I know one of these days this will be second nature.
One of the groups to the southwest kind looked like the Hawaiian islands with the big island to the southwest. At about 13:00, I observed 2 small new spots appear on the northwest side not far (I guess about .1 deg, assuming a .6 deg FOV in a 26mm eyepiece) away from the large group to the northwest.
My questions is, are they spots that were already there and showed up because seeing improved or did I get to see new spots form. I was pretty excited when I saw them.
It was great to be outdoors for lunch and fun sharing the eyepiece with anybody that happened to walk by, (I was set up in the parking lot behind my truck) I think I might do this more often.