Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!

By Aaron B. Clevenson, ALCor

“Let us make hay while the sun shines.”
- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in Don Quixote

Ok, so the title is a little hokey. But it emphasized the most important thing about solar observing. This is the ONLY type of astronomy that we do that can hurt you seriously. The warning your mother told you “Never look at the sun.” is very true. It takes only a few seconds for irreversible damage to be done with no equipment. With a telescope or binoculars, this damage can be instantaneous. Even in the early morning or just before dusk, when the sun seems so much fainter (thanks to all the intervening atmosphere) the harmful rays can still cause damage. NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN without using high-quality and appropriate filtering. One other warning: If you are using a telescope, keep the cover on the finder scope. I made this mistake ONCE. I was observing the sun, with a very good filter, through the main scope. I didn’t notice that the finder scope was not covered. I burned a hole in my jeans, and almost my leg. Not a good thing! Now we go on to business.

Face it, for us astronomers, less than half the day is dark. How can we, astronomers, make our hay? What do we do about the sun? We observe it! This is a great certification. It is easy, but a challenge from southeast Texas. It does require special equipment. You will also need the manual that is available for a small fee from the Astronomical League. (I have one I will let people borrow.) The manual identifies the different parts of sunspots and other features visible on the sun. It also describes the various classifications of sunspots, and this is critical to getting this certification. Lots of sketching is involved in this certification (are you getting this message?). You must observe a large sunspot group for five days as well as the entire solar disk during two rotations (60 days). This is the tough part. You need 20 clear days in a two-month period. I started this while in Phoenix over Christmas. I got 12 observations in 15 days. I then returned to Houston and was barely able to get the remaining 8 observations needed in 45 days.

This certification doesn’t go into the detail that we saw in Don Taylor’s Novice presentation on observing the sun: no prominences and no flares. All you need is a telescope with a standard solar filter. Get a good one, made of glass, and one that fits over the sunward end of the telescope. Be careful.

So it is possible for astronomers to “make hay while the sun shines”. Join us next month for even closer objects: The Satellites. Until then, Happy Hunting!