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01/17/2023 – Ephemeris – The Sun is getting active again
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This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 17th. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 15 minutes, setting at 5:30, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:14. The Moon, 3 days past last quarter, will rise at 5:11 tomorrow morning.
The Sun is getting active again, there are a lot of sunspots on the sun today. The sunspot number which isn’t really a count of the sunspots on the face of the Sun, but it’s sort of a weighted average was 177 yesterday, which is a really high number even for the last few sunspot cycle peaks, and we haven’t reached the peak yet. You can find this number on the website called spaceweather.com. These sunspots cannot be seen with solar eclipse glasses that we had for the last eclipse back in 2017 because they are too small, even though they are much larger than the Earth. For the most part it would require a telescope with an approved solar filter in front to see them or go to that aforementioned website to see a daily picture from them.
The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.
Addendum
This image, from NOAA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) downloaded last night, shows a many spotted Sun. The sunspot number by this time was up to 186. Sunspot groups are numbered as active regions. The most active region is AR 3190. Click on the image to enlarge it. Credit: NOAA’s SDO via spaceweather.com.
09/28/2020 – Ephemeris – A new sunspot cycle has started
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, September 28th. Today the Sun will be up for 11 hours and 50 minutes, setting at 7:27, and it will rise tomorrow at 7:38. The Moon, 3 days before full, will set at 5:06 tomorrow morning.
Word has come down from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the new solar or sunspot cycle has definitely started as of last December. The length of a sunspot cycle is about 11 years and may vary in length from one cycle to the next. The peak in sunspot numbers isn’t expected until 2025. The intensity of the cycle, that is numbers of sunspots around peak are expected to be about the same as the last cycle, about 150 observed daily. Each cycle is different and not really wholly predictable. Fewer spots means fewer solar flares and coronal mass ejections and less worry for satellite owners and power companies, and fewer displays of the northern lights for us.*
The event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
* I didn’t have time to add that we will have more cosmic rays penetrate the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble that protects us from damaging particles produced by high energy events in the universe. We’re at a solar minimum now, so cosmic ray flux is high. With a weak sunspot or solar activity cycle cosmic ray flux will not dip too much.
Sunspot numbers from solar cycle 19 to the prospective cycle 25. Credit: NOAA NWS Space Weather Prediction Center https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/solar-cycle-progression
I came of age, astronomically speaking, during cycle 19, the most active peak since the 1779. I saw quite a few displays of the aurora borealis (northern lights) from Grand Rapids, MI 140 miles south from where I now live.
Sunspot butterfly diagram for solar cycles 23 and 24. Sunspots of a new cycle begin to appear at a relatively high latitude on the Sun. Sunspots of the old cycle form close to the equator. There is some overlap of spots from the old cycle seen at the same time as spots from the new cycle.
At one of 2019 summer’s Sun party at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore we saw a high latitude sunspot popping up as a precursor to cycle 25. We watched two solar flares from the spot in our hydrogen alpha solar telescopes that afternoon, ejecting short term filaments of hydrogen. It was cool watching it in real time.
07/21/2016 – Ephemeris – This sunspot cycle is past peak
Ephemeris for Thursday, July 21st. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 2 minutes, setting at 9:20, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:18. The Moon, 2 days past full, will rise at 10:20 this evening.
The Sun is on the down side in this sunspot cycle. Sunspots increase and decrease on the Sun in a roughly 11 year cycle. This sunspot cycle wasn’t a very high peak in numbers of sunspots. The peak of sunspot numbers occurred in both 2012 and 2014, an odd double peak. The peak in activity for this cycle is among the lowest since systematic observations have been recorded over the last 200 or so years. This year so far has seen 16 Sun spotless days according to SpaceWeather.com. There was none last year and only one in 2014. Coming up to this sunspot peak saw an extended period of years with mostly spotless days. The Sun is actually brighter when it has lots sunspots, than when it is not. Odd but true. In not so distant past sunspots have been missing for years.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
All the recorded sunspot cycles back to the 18th century. Credit: Dr. David Hathaway, NASA /ARC.
12/04/2014 – Ephemeris – What’s happening on the Sun this solar cycle
Ephemeris for Thursday, December 4th. The sun will rise at 8:02. It’ll be up for 9 hours even, setting at 5:02. The moon, 2 days before full, will set at 6:52 tomorrow morning.
It looks like maybe we’ve hit the peak of sunspots in this 11 year solar cycle. Actually this cycle had two peaks, the latter part of 2012 when the world ended. You do remember the world ending two years ago on December 21st. How soon we forget. The second peak in this solar cycle occurred in the first three months of this year. The sunspot cycle 24 so far appears to be the weakest since cycle 12 in the 1880s. The time of the peak can only be determined in hindsight. Of course this weak sunspot cycle produced the largest sunspot group, or active region, as they are now called, in 24 years, so I expect more surprises from this solar cycle. I expect to see more aurorae or northern lights as the sunspot numbers decline.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Sunspot cycle from 2000 until October 2014. Credit: NOAA/SWPC.
All the recorded sunspot cycles back to the 18th century. Credit: Dr. David Hathaway, NASA /ARC.
Here’s a link to NASA’s Sunspot Cycle page with a lot more information.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 