Welcome October!

Today is the start of October and right on schedule the weather here in the Old Pueblo is changing.  While the Sun is shining steadily in clear blue skies this morning, later today will see heavy cloud cover, and increasing moisture for a few days.  By weeks end, temps in the upper 80's!!

Quick report today, the Sun appears much as it has for the past two days.  5 active regions are making their way westward across the northern hemisphere of the sun.  AR 11305 displays the strongest plage, and 11302 covers the largest area and contains the most spots.  There is potentially an emerging region that has come around in the southeast, as well as a small ephemeral region of plage that has persisted since yesterday in the south.  My sketch was completed at 1623 UT (9:23 AM local time) under very steady skies.

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Below are images in Hydrogen Alpha from the Big Bear Solar Observatory (taken at 1634 UT), and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (taken at 1514 UT).  I particularly enjoy the Big Bear image at left, as it is monochrome and more closely resembles the eyepiece view.

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