PhotonStopper

Hosting a group of kids from a local church camp this morning, we were treated to the best views of sunspots I’ve ever had. Sunspot group AR1520 is absolutely enormous, dominating the face of the Sun and observing conditions were very good. We viewed the Sun at about 30X and, later, at about 120X through Stephens Memorial Observatory’s 112-year-old refractor fitted with a white light solar filter. After the campers left I hauled out my camera and discovered I had the wrong direct-focus adapter with me and could not focus at all! So I removed a piece, focused as best I could, and hand-held the camera for a direct-focus image. The resulting image (above) is soft, not doing justice to the telescope or the sunspots, but the view is impressive, nonetheless; it’s a representation of what we saw which was truly amazing!