Friday afternoon, and I've been home since two-thirty. This is the result of getting my sorry carcass out of bed for work at 5AM and getting it done. I have the freedom of being able to leave for work when I want, as long as it all gets finished. What do I do? I deliver pet supplies to people who can't do it for themselves. For most of these people, their furballs are their only company in the day, so I enjoy what I do. I know so many good folks, both two and four-legged...
My territory is farm country in Ontario (~ minimum 100 miles/160 km's north and west of Toronto); it's just me and my Ford Ranger and sometimes a few prayers on the open and occasional dirt roads. I've seen my boss three times now since last August. My hardly changing route list is emailed to me the night before, I'm paid through Interac, and all expenses covered (gas, insurance, supplies; I use a company credit card). I schedule the truck maintenance for myself and the other four people on this; not rocket science and it all works.
This gives me a lot of freedom, not to mention tips and side jobs, and I am never stressed from my job. How could I be? When I pull in to a client, it's canine tails wagging, the meows and feline body-checks, happy pet owners...
And, weather permitting, I often have the chance to check out the Sun in the day. I'm so fascinated with our star, but I've discovered the "deeper in" you get into the surface, the more it seems to cost. I have a "wish list of wavelengths", if you will, but for now the affordability is white light. The Calcium-K and
I use Baader solar film in a homemade filter unit with my C80-HD at
The scope, mount and camera are second hand, the only new parts in that drivetrain are the Vixen T-ring and the Baader solar film. All of the software is freeware with the exception of
I had a fairy clear sky on Tuesday (June 15th) when I got in, so I took some shots of the Sun with sunspot AR2833. The next day was less than ideal, but I did manage through some breaks in the clouds. Yesterday (Thursday) was quite nice, and I managed to get some decent shots.
I was hoping for a four day run at least, but my forecast for today was a lot of rain with thunderstorms. At 6AM, this was my view as I was heading west and then north after that:
Those clouds that seem to go to the horizon is actually rain, and I drove right into it. Lightning, thunder, and sudden waves of intense downpours; I had to pull over a few times and wait it out. A very soggy morning to say the least; the truck's exterior looks like I've been off-roading...
Now we have clouds, humidity, and rain forecasted for the next bit. Good times; welcome to summer in southern Ontario!
Back to ol' Sol. This is yesterday's Sun on Thursday June 17, 2021 with AR2833 still making progress across the surface; the Earth for scale is to the bottom right:
Full size image here
And this is a combination shot of the same spot, AR2833 from the 15th, 16th and 17th. I took the shots at 5:14PM EST each consecutive day. The spot seems to travel from right to left roughly 100,000 miles (160000 KM's) across the Sun's surface in a 24 hour time frame.
Full size image here
You can probably see that the sunspot is bigger than our blue marble. Just to emphasize, here's a close-up of the two to scale:
And that's a small spot. We're just in the beginnings of Solar Cycle 25. When I got into the whole Solar thing it was 2017, back when there was a bit more to see. Then 2018 started... The past two years and change have been a sort of an extreme minimum from what I can find out. A record 100 consecutive spotless days in 2020. Hopefully it's going to ramp up some. Please, universe, just do me this one favour...??
Alrighty, enough of me. It's somewhat before nine here; I started writing this post at 3PM. Between then and now it was family, dinner, the usual. TGIF!!
I also have to ask: If any of you reading this have a 1.25" Baader Solar Continuum filer (single or double stack), K-Line or even a polarizing filter collecting dust instead of photons in a sock drawer, please PM me. We need to talk
Well, time for me to have a beer, sit on the couch, watch some TV (probably a documentary) and pass out.
Have a good day/night all, and all the best,