Since he was a child Cochrane resident and amateur astronomer Abdur Anwar has been fascinated by looking up at the night sky, but what Anwar wants to draw Cochranites' attention to at the moment, rather than the night, is the fascinating cosmic show going on in the daytime sky.
The sun is currently in its solar maximum period, and anyone with the interest, says Anwar, can now look up through special solar filters and see a wide array of dramatic activity from sunspots, to solar flares and other prominences dancing waves across the sun’s surface.
“Cochrane is a small town, but I've met quite a few astronomers here,” said Anwar; “people who are interested in both the night sky and the sun and moon, and planet, and everything else. So that's why I thought the current solar activity might be of interest to some residents here.”
The sun has an 11-year cycle with the low point called solar minimum, with very little activity, to the high point of solar maximum, which we are in the midst of right now. This has led to intense auroras Cochranites have been observing for the last several months now, says Anwar.
“From my interest in the night sky, I ended up also becoming interested in our sun because the things that happen on the sun on a daily basis affect things on Earth as well,” he explained. “So if we get a solar flare, for example, facing the earth on the sun, then a few days later we end up with Northern Lights on Earth, and also just the 11-year cycle of the sun, where we see the Northern Lights and just sunspots in general, just grow or diminish over that 11-year cycle. It was always really fascinating to me.”
Earth experienced a significant solar storm in May last year around Mother’s Day. Known as the Gannon Storm, the event tripped off beautiful auroras all across the globe. While Gannon did not mirror the infamous Carrington event in intensity, nonetheless, Anwar said, another Carrington-like event is a possibility, and if something like that hit the Earth now, it would wreak absolute havoc on our satellite networks and possibly even our electrical grids.
“We're not quite as prepared for this as we probably should be,” stated Anwar. “But again, it's one of those events that rarely happens. We normally don't get events that big that might affect us significantly on Earth, or knockout part of the power grid most of the time, the worst of it is that you know a couple of satellites fall out of the sky … because all that extra energy coming from the sun ends up causing the Earth's atmosphere to swell, which causes more drag on the satellites. So then they end up just de-orbiting.”
The potential for such incidents is one reason to continuously observe the sun, but the other, says Anwar, is because the surface of the sun is amazing and beautiful, and can be viewed with relatively little equipment.
“You don't need complicated or expensive equipment to be able to view the sun,” he said. “A simple safe solar filter might cost about $50. And if you have a pair of binoculars, or some very basic telescope, you can still see a lot of the day-to-day activity going on in the sun in terms of sunspots, because they're changing almost everyday with new ones coming up, old ones withering away.”
Anwar uses a regular achromatic reflecting telescope with a Day Star Quark solar filter attached to a planetary camera so he can capture vivid real time images of the sun; however it can be much simpler for the more casual observer.
“You can even just get a pair of solar glasses for probably $5 to $10, and that'll allow you to keep track of some of the larger sunspot groups that show up every couple of weeks right now … Some of them are big enough that you don't need any magnification to see it.”
You can also go old school, if you prefer, says Anwar, by using a regular telescope with some kind of stick and paper attachment in front of the eyepiece to project an indirect image of the sun for casual viewing. Anwar stresses the importance of not looking at the sun directly without the proper filter to avoid damaging your eyes.
“And, of course, don't look at the sun through anything that doesn't have a solar filter, because that can be quite dangerous,” he said. “But you can find different strategies online for how to look at the sun through any kind of equipment.”
For more information on solar viewing, and other astronomy tips, Anwar also suggests visiting the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) website at www.rasc.ca.
