Chris Maloney

PCC VIRTUAL SUNSPOT OBERVATORY

Click here to see an image of the sun's disk taken 4-27-01 with the 4.5 inch reflecting scope.

Here is sunspot region 9393 (bottom, near shadow); the one that caused one of the largest flares in history back in March.  It is also an unusually long lived flare.

Here is region 9433, also a large grouping.

Here again are both regions.

Here's what Nasa's SOHO observatory recorded today for comparison.  Rotate their image about 180 degrees counter-clockwise and it will match the orientation of the full disk shot above.

(Our budget at pcc is about $3000   including the laptop computer and telescope plus one video-camera accessory borrowed from student John Hornor.  Launch vehicles are slightly out of budget this year.  We would probably have a bit of trouble reaching a stable Lagrange point anyway  :) :}