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How to Draw the Sun
One way to see/capture the sunspots, without having a solar filter, is to draw the Sun by projecting it onto a screen. This is the safest way to "observe" the Sun, and you don’t need to buy a filter. This is probably the best, and most inexpensive, way to track the solar activity during its 11 years cycle.
Besides sunspots, you could also see granulations. This will appear as a brighter spots on the screen. If your projected Sun is 20 cm (8 inches) in diameter, which is more or less standard for such drawings, the granulation will look like rise.
Besides sunspots, you could also see granulations. This will appear as a brighter spots on the screen. If your projected Sun is 20 cm (8 inches) in diameter, which is more or less standard for such drawings, the granulation will look like rise.
To draw the Sun is not as easy as it may seems. The telescope shakes (how much would depend on the sturdiness of your system) when the pencil touches the screen. The good thing is that you don’t need to be an artist to draw the Sun, and also, your skills will increase with practice.
Since there is no filter, all the light passes through the optical system, which causes heating. You would see some turbulence of the image a few minutes after you point the telescope at the Sun. That’s why you should draw for no more than 5 minutes, and then rotate the telescope away from the Sun to cool down, and than continue again.
Sunspots are generally found in groups, but not always. You could find isolated sunspots that would be small. Every large sunspot is surrounded of small ones, and sometimes you could see a few sunspots in the penumbra (the shaded regions).
How to draw the Sun?
First, grab a sheet of paper (letter or A4) and draw a circle with radius 10 cm or 4 inches (20 cm diameter). You may also include inner circle with radius 5 cm if you want. Put it on your screen, which is already attached to your telescope. I would recommend that you have a motorized mount, or else you have to track the Sun manually, while you're drowning it, and that won't be easy.
After your screen is set and the projected solar disk is adjusted to fit the 20 cm circle, you can start drawing the Sun. Don't try to reproduce them exactly to the last bit of detail. This is not necessary at the beginning, and you'll become much better after a while. Quickly mark the centers of the spots, and after that draw the shaded regions without filing them in. At the end put down the small sunspots, which are around the big once.
Finally, what you need to do is choose one small spot, and turn off the power of your telescope. The entire image will start moving, and then quickly mark the path of the sunspot you’ve chosen with a few dots. That way you can draw a line, which will determine the East direction. Record the sky conditions and the turbulence of the image. You could use scale of 1 to 5, and you are almost done for today. Don't forget to include the day and time (Universal Time preferably).
Wolf number
The last thing you have to include in your drawing is the Wolf number (or the sunspot number). The idea for computing such number belongs to Rudolf Wolf, thus Wolf number. This number is used to track the solar activity. It's calculated as follows:
W = 10 x G + S
where G is the number of groups and S is the number of sunspots. With that your observing session is done.
More information you could find on the SIDC (Solar Influence Data Analysis Center)website.
Since there is no filter, all the light passes through the optical system, which causes heating. You would see some turbulence of the image a few minutes after you point the telescope at the Sun. That’s why you should draw for no more than 5 minutes, and then rotate the telescope away from the Sun to cool down, and than continue again.
Sunspots are generally found in groups, but not always. You could find isolated sunspots that would be small. Every large sunspot is surrounded of small ones, and sometimes you could see a few sunspots in the penumbra (the shaded regions).
How to draw the Sun?
First, grab a sheet of paper (letter or A4) and draw a circle with radius 10 cm or 4 inches (20 cm diameter). You may also include inner circle with radius 5 cm if you want. Put it on your screen, which is already attached to your telescope. I would recommend that you have a motorized mount, or else you have to track the Sun manually, while you're drowning it, and that won't be easy.
After your screen is set and the projected solar disk is adjusted to fit the 20 cm circle, you can start drawing the Sun. Don't try to reproduce them exactly to the last bit of detail. This is not necessary at the beginning, and you'll become much better after a while. Quickly mark the centers of the spots, and after that draw the shaded regions without filing them in. At the end put down the small sunspots, which are around the big once.
Finally, what you need to do is choose one small spot, and turn off the power of your telescope. The entire image will start moving, and then quickly mark the path of the sunspot you’ve chosen with a few dots. That way you can draw a line, which will determine the East direction. Record the sky conditions and the turbulence of the image. You could use scale of 1 to 5, and you are almost done for today. Don't forget to include the day and time (Universal Time preferably).
Wolf number
The last thing you have to include in your drawing is the Wolf number (or the sunspot number). The idea for computing such number belongs to Rudolf Wolf, thus Wolf number. This number is used to track the solar activity. It's calculated as follows:
W = 10 x G + S
where G is the number of groups and S is the number of sunspots. With that your observing session is done.
More information you could find on the SIDC (Solar Influence Data Analysis Center)website.
