Solar Observing

On Tuesday 1st July the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society (CARS) will be given a talk on Solar Observing by Peter Meadows 2E0ZBU, Solar Editor for ‘The Astronomer’ magazine.

Solar activity has a significant impact on radio propagation through the state of the Earth's ionosphere. In general the more solar activity, the greater the density of the ionosphere which gives rise to better HF propagation and the availability of higher frequencies for long distance communications.

This talk will describe how sunspot activity can be safely observed using modest sized telescopes with special filters as well as the more dynamic solar features of solar flares and prominences using more specialised hydrogen alpha telescopes.

A selection of observations made by the speaker over the last solar cycle and from other solar observers will then be shown. After describing the characteristics of solar cycles, the present solar minimum and the start of the new cycle will be discussed.

This leads one to ask the question "Where has the latest Solar Cycle gone?".

Finally there will be a short summary of the activities of the Radio Astronomy Group of the British Astronomical Association: -
http://www.britastro.org/info/radio.html

Peter 2E0ZBU is the Solar Editor for ‘The Astronomer’ magazine:
http://www.theastronomer.org/

His Solar Observing website can be seen at:
http://www.petermeadows.com/

Visitors are most welcome to attend the meeting that will be held at the:
Marconi Social Club (MASC), Beehive Lane, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, CM2 9RX.

The doors open at 7:10 pm and the meeting gets underway at 7:30 pm. Car parking is free and a bar is available for refreshments. For a map see: http://tinyurl.com/dwsud

Peter 2E0ZBU took the CARS Foundation and Intermediate courses. For more details of the Amateur Radio courses run by CARS contact Clive G1EUC on Tel: 01245-224577
Mob: 07860-418835
E-mail: training2008@g0mwt.org.uk

CARS Website: http://www.g0mwt.org.uk/