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Galaxy Architect
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Re: Astrophotography

02 Jun 2023 18:49

It's amazing this is happening now and when is solar max, Wat, is it close to the time of the solar eclipse next April?  It could be even more spectacular than normal!
Yes, the corona looks much different for eclipses near solar max than near solar minimum. There are more active regions, and more coronal streamers going off in multiple directions and from higher latitudes. You can expect the eclipse to look more similar to the image at right than the image at left.

Image

As for when the solar max will be, there is little sense in trying to pin it down to a specific month, because maxima are often fairly broad and can span many months, or even have multiple peaks. The latest research I've seen suggests this max may be a little bit earlier than previously predicted, perhaps around the end of 2023. Even if that's the case, you can expect a high degree of solar activity throughout the rest of 2023 and 2024.
Thanks Wats, I guess that means more of those pink prominences too?  Even more than we had in the last national total solar eclipse?
 
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Watsisname
Science Officer
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Re: Astrophotography

02 Jun 2023 22:39

Not necessarily... the number and size of prominences does not correlate to sunspot number that much. This is because there are several kinds of prominences, some of which are not related to active regions. Those ones tend to have longer lifespans (so they're more likely to be around at a randomly chosen moment in time), and they also tend to be larger.

Image

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