Sunspot #AR2767 Cycle 25
Sunspot AR2767 is an early member of new Solar Cycle. We have had 25 complete sunspot High/Low cycles since we started keeping track of such things. The last cycle was quite anemic for numbers of sunspots versus the historic record. I’ve been watching this sunspot move across the suns face for the last few days. It’s the small dot at 8 o’clock. It’s not a dust spot on my camera’s sensor, trust me… 😜
In an attempt to explain how this works in a few sentences: The low sun spot numbers roughly correspond to increased gamma ray penetration of earths atmosphere. Fewer sunspots result in less solar wind away from the sun which keeps those gamma rays at bay during busy sunspot periods. Gamma rays penetrating our atmosphere do all sorts of things. They ionize channels of air as they pass creating lightning paths of discharge. They also create “points of Nucleation” which are condensation centers causing more cloud cover. More cloud cover cools the planet by reflecting heat back to space. (white). Gamma rays also smash through our bodies routinely but fortunately not an excess of them visit. If you ever see a flash of light with your eyes closed, either your like John Travolta in the movie “Phenomena”, or you just had a gamma ray hit your optic nerve.
At any rate this was taken with NO man contrived filters what so ever. Shut the camera down to light by turning down the iso as low as it will go. The F-stop # as high as it will go, and the shutter as fast as it will click. Say 1/4000th to 1/8000th. Have a veiled sky to help you out. Don’t use a standard DSLR with a direct light path to your eye. You’ll blind yourself. I have used Sony Alpha 7 R2 to R4’s for this. Your camera may not take this so consider a few neutral density filters stacked in front of the lens or a proper solar filter. Here I let the clouds do most of the work.
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.
Title: Sunspot #AR2767 Cycle 25