Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy carefully watches sunspot AR3697 as it appears Sunsoutheastern branch. Incredible images taken from his backyard in Arizona showcase the turbulent nature of the sunspot region in great detail.
“Unlike most celestial objects, the sun looks quite different from day to day and is full of exciting events such as explosions or coronal mass ejections. There’s always something interesting to look at!” McCarthy told Space.com in an email.
Sun spot The region formerly known as AR3664 has attracted the attention of the media and skywatchers in recent weeks because it sent out a wave of waves during its final passage across the solar disk. coronal mass breakthroughs CMEs – ejection of plasma and magnetic field towards Earth. When these CMEs hit our planet magnetosphere, Category 5 geomagnetic storm (strongest class) triggered and sparked auroras well beyond their normal range.
Relating to: Giant sunspot powering auroras on Earth? It’s back and could power the northern lights with solar storms in June.
more restless space weather may be on the horizon when the sunspot region turns towards the face Soil Over the coming days, McCarthy will be documenting his comeback with daily time-lapses and livestreams on X.
“This sunspot has an extremely active history and has produced a series of flares and CMEs that are exciting to capture and watch,” McCarthy told Space.com in an email.
McCarthy first documented the sunspot region shortly after launching a rocket. massive X-class solar flare, captures the aftermath of the flare in extraordinary detail.
“WOW! This is the same active region that caused the aurora a few weeks ago. It’s done orbiting behind the Sun and is ready to cause some damage again!” McCarthy wrote: Publish on X.
On the third consecutive day of monitoring the historic sunspot as it began its journey towards Earth, McCarthy recorded loops of plasma that appeared to “dance” on the sun’s surface.
“This is a time-lapse video I recorded over a period of about 90 minutes; you can watch how the accelerated plasma dances like flames… except the “flames” are bigger than the Earth.” McCarthy wrote on X.
A lot of work and planning goes into capturing such spectacular views of our nearest star. In a post on May 29, McCarthy gives us a sneak peek into the massive amount of processing taking place behind the scenes.
“This is what it looks like when I manually align each piece of a solar mosaic. I do it manually because I can look at each panel closely so I know if I need to go back and re-stack.” McCarthy wrote to x.
According to McCarthy, the bulk of post-processing consists of adding color to remove atmospheric artifacts and increase the contrast and overall aesthetics of the image.
“Naturally the image from my telescope is red, but due to the nature of highly filtered light, I have to use a monochrome camera to capture it, so the colors are added later,” McCarthy told Space.com.
McCarthy has an impressive backyard layout that he’s perfected over the years.
“My equipment is always ready to use because I built an observatory to house my solar telescope and have it ready with the push of a button,” McCarthy told Space.com.
“Time lapse shooting is simple, but it took a long time to learn how to do it effectively. My years of experience helped me here!” McCarthy continued.
During his fourth day photographing the turbulent sunspot region, McCarthy captured more loops of plasma swirling above the surface.
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“You can see the afterglow of a flash: loops of plasma driven by the magnetic field,” McCarthy wrote. Publish on X.
McCarthy frequently appears live on both X (@ajamesmccarthy) and Instagram (@cosmic_background) we show you what the sun looks like in real time. He photographs the entire sun in detail every day, hoping to print one of his highest quality photographs. You can join McCarthy’s mailing list to stay up to date with the latest print publications.
As this sunspot rotates towards Earth, the likelihood of possible geomagnetic storms increases. In fact, any CME released from the sunspot region while pointing toward Earth is more likely to hit our planet.
Solar astrophysicist Ryan French says the key dates for when the sunspot region will reach its optimum Earth engagement location are June 4 to June 6. previously reported for Space.com. “Any significant eruption during this time is the point at which it is most likely to create a geomagnetic storm on Earth and enhanced aurora displays,” French continued.
We’ll definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for more explosive action from the AR3697, and we certainly hope McCarthy does the same.
I can’t wait to see what else the sun has in store for us as solar activity continues to increase as we get closer solar maximumThe period of peak solar activity during the Sun’s approximately 11-year lifespan solar cycle.