By Jo-Ann Hem Lee | 2022-01-30
On 02/01/2022 11:00 am by David Hoskin | Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Solar cycle 25 seems on track to be quite active. In this image there are 5 different sunspot groups visible. One of these sunspots, AR2936 at the 2 o'clock position nearest the limb, was the source of a coronal mass ejection on the weekend. AR2939 and AR2940, which are emerging from the farside of the Sun are crackling with solar flares, albeit so far only small ones. A very active region currently on the farside of the Sun will rotate into view later this week.
Celestron 102mm f/6.3 refractor with Baader solar filter, Canon EOS T3i DSLR (ISO-400, 1/200 sec) with 2.5x Barlow and #58A filter to increase contrast
A mosaic of 2 separate images was produced using Photoshop; other post-processing with Photoshop and PhotoScape X.