June was a pretty quiet month for solar activity as will be the trend over the next while. When possible, I'd like to include some imagery produced by members in the bulletin, so I encourage you to send me solar images in white light, H-alpha, CaK, and even drawings. SID observers can also send me a flare plot from your receivers.

Over the upcoming months we'll be making attempts to update the solar group's web presence on the AAVSO site. Here is where we really need images/drawing that can posted in a more timely fashion as solar events unfold. Also images of members setups to show the wide range of equipment used from very different locales.

SUNSPOT: It may be hard to see in this full disk image, but just below center is a sunspot. It will be nice to have something to record during this month both visually and by radio with SID. This image is courtesy SOHO/MDI taken on July 3, 2006

Sharing the Sun - A Summertime Event.
With many people taking summer vacations, some of our observers find creative ways to take their scopes with them to continue recording observations. I encourage you travellers to take a moment when possible and share the solar views with members of the public in campgrounds and parks. Most people have never seen the sun or sunspots safely through a telescope. Besides sharing some science with people, you might possibly encourage someone to pursue a budding interest further.

Michael Hill, SID Analyst 114 Prospect St Marlborough, MA 01752 USA noatak@aol.com

The events listed above meet at least one of the following criteria

1. Event reported by two or more observers within +/- 5 minutes
2. Event matched to GOES-8 XRA event to within +/- 15 minutes and event time < 1000 UT
3. Reported by observer with a high quality rating > 8 (scale 1-10)

Do you sometimes wonder what the various classes of X-Ray flares really mean? Thanks to the gloassary section from the spaceweather.com web site the following should make it a bit clearer. The Class rating relates to the power of the flare in watts per meter squared (W/Meter²)

Solar Flare Summary Based on GOES-12 Data

Sunspot Data

American Relative Sunspot Numbers(Ra) for June 2006 [boldface = maximum, minimum] Day N Raw Mean Ra 1 31 7 4 2 19 1 0 3 25 3 2 4 35 17 12 5 30 24 16 6 33 31 23 7 32 55 38 8 28 49 34 9 26 43 31 10 31 41 30 11 30 30 23 12 28 25 18 13 26 24 17 14 28 17 11 15 24 17 11 16 28 8 5 17 30 12 8 18 32 16 11 19 29 18 13 20 26 19 13 21 29 6 5 22 24 1 0 23 28 0 0 24 26 1 0 25 22 14 9 26 23 16 11 27 27 25 18 28 25 38 26 29 31 38 28 30 32 37 25 Means 27.9 21.1 14.7 Total No. of Observers: 52 Total No. of Observations: 838

June 2006 Sunspot Observers ARAG G. Araujo 28 BARH H. Barnes 12 BATR R. Battaiola 15 BEB R. Berg 12 BERJ J. Berdejo 11 BLAJ J. Blackwell 3 BMF M. Boschat 7 BRAB B. Branchett 24 BRAD D. Branchett 18 BRAM M. Bradbury 2 BRAR R. Branch 28 BROB R. Brown 29 BYG Y. Brovarets 23 CAMP P. Campbell 6 CHAG G. Morales 30 CKB B. Cudnik 29 CLZ L. Corp 18 COMT T. Compton 16 DEMF F. Dempsey 4 FERJ J. Fernandez 19 FLET T. Fleming 25 FUJK K. Fujimori 19 GOEM M. Goetz 14 HALB B. Halls 9 HAYK K. Hay 12 JAMD D. James 18 KAPJ J. Kaplan 26 KNJS J.& S. Knight 28 KROL L. Krozel 1 LARJ J. Larriba 6 LERM M. Lerman 6 MCE E. Mochizuki 12 MENM M. Menegotto 5 MEU E. Mason 1 MMI M. Moeller 23 OATS S. Oatney 28 OBSO IPS Observatory 17 PEKT R. Pektas 26 RICE E. Richardson 19 RITA A. Ritchie 14 SIMC C. Simpson 17 STEF G. Stefanopoulis 1 STEM G. Stemmler 25 STQ N. Stoikidis 27 SUZM M. Suzuki 20 SZUM M. Szulc 13 TESD D. Teske 30 TJV J. Temprano 10 VARG A. Vargas 25 VIDD D. Vidican 11 WILD D. Williams 9 WRP R. Wheeler 7

Reporting addresses: Sunspot Reports Email: solar@aavso.org Postal Mail: AAVSO, 25 Birch St. Cambridge, MA, 02138 Fax: 617-354-0665 SID Flare Reports Email: noatak@aol.com Postal Mail: Mike Hill, 114 Prospect St., Marlboro, MA, 01752

Click image to enlarge. Fig. 1.10 cm Solar Flux and American Relative Sunspot Numbers (Ra) for June 2006 (10cm Source: http://www.drao.nrc.ca/icarus)

Click image to enlarge. Fig.2 Smoothed Mean Sunspot Numbers (Rsm) from January 2000 to December 2005 (Waldmeier method).