The Sun - June 20, 2012

This image of the Sun was taken at the Phoebe Waterman Haas Public Observatory at the Museum in Washington, DC at 12:53 pm on June 20, 2012.

This was our last glimpse of the complex sunspot group AR 1504, visible on the right edge of the Sun. This sunspot group first appeared on the left edge ten days earlier, crackling with moderate M-class solar flares.

As the rotation of the Sun carried AR 1504 across the Sun's face, it unleashed several more flares and coronal mass ejections. An impact from one of these coronal mass ejections caused beautiful aurorae to be seen at high latitudes around the world on June 16 and 17.

The day after this image was taken, the Sun's face was blank of sunspots.

Telescope: Lunt 100mm hydrogen-alpha

Camera: Lumenera SKYnyx 2-2M