What a difference a day makes
This pair of sunspot drawings hails from the tail end of activity of the current solar cycle. The weekend of May 1st and 2nd 2005 consisted of two ‘blue sky’ days here in southern England, and I had the chance to observe and sketch the Sun in white light on both of them, recording the intriguing changes to AR 756 that occurred in just over 19 hours. I used graphite pencil on white cartridge paper, my favourite medium for this kind of target. For each sketch I drew the umbra first, then added the penumbral region with lighter pencil strokes drawn from the umbra outwards, with the pores being added last. The seeing conditions were very steady and not a breath of wind was to be had while I spent a happy (but very hot!) hour in front of the eyepiece each day.
Sally Russell
Sketch details:
Date: 1st and 2nd May 2005
Time: 14.20-15.30 UT & 10.05-11.15 UT respectively
Equipment: 105mm AstroPhysics APO, 9mm TV Nagler, 2 x Barlow (mag x135),
Kendrick white light filter
Additional accessories: Large brimmed straw hat and a cold drink!
Medium: Graphite pencil on white cartridge paper
Each image size: approx. 1.5″ x 1.5″