I need more sunspots !!

The sunspot number progression continues to test my patience. It is well below the latest forecast dated May 2009, and much below earlier forecasts.

HELP !!

Solar active region 11039

Detail of an image by Kanzelhoehe Observatory in Austria January 2. This region has produced more than 40 flares. Here is an animation of a C6.2 X-ray class flare, from the STEREO Ahead extreme ultraviolet camera.

Detail of a SOHO 171 angstrom image January 5

A telescope waits

click image for enlargement

Dance of the Telescopes

I recently showed this image at an Imaging Group meeting of the Tucson Astronomy Association.
The animation lasts about 45 minutes in real time. Notice the moving shadow of the telescopes, cast by of the moon. The telescopes are at New Mexico Skies, in the Sacramento Mountains, east of Cloudcroft New Mexico.

Ring around the Moon

This image is from the All Sky camera at New Mexico Skies, in New Mexico USA, a wonderful facility with many robotic telescopes. See the message by Steve Coe in the Arizona Observers List.

A beautiful cloud at sunset

Click on the picture for a 1024 pixel wide image

The Blue Moon Lunar eclipse of December 2009

My good friend Divyadarshan Purohit, with the Planetarium in Vadodara India (north of Mumbai in Gujarat), has sent me images of the eclipse that ended 2009.

See additional images from him at Spaceweather.com page.

"Blue Moon" does not refer to the color of the Moon, but to the rarity of the occurrence of an extra full moon in a season or year.

See also the Wiki articles: December_2009_lunar_eclipse and Blue_moon