Gema Araujo caught these wonderful solar prominences on October 8, 2007 11:01UT and October 6, 10:41 UT respectively. More of Gema's images can be seen at http://www.astrosurf.com/obsolar/

Solar activity continues to be very low and just when you thought we hit minimum, we continue with low sunspot counts and no SID events recorded. You can also see the X-ray and other flux values at their lowest on the NOAA Spaceweather page. http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html

I got a chance to read a book by Stuart Clark entitled "The Sun Kings, The unexpected tragedy of Richard Carrington and the tale of how modern astronomy began". It is an interesting account of how solar observing played a part in changing our perception leading to the Sun-Earth connection. More intriguing was how several dedicated amateur solar observers were able to make discoveries about the sun and solar cycle. Gema's photo at left was taken just as Carrington rotation 2062 began. Rotation #1 began on November 9, 1853

Remember to send me any solar drawings, SID flares or photos for me to include here

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)

Solar Events

October was very very slow for SID events. There were no correlated events reported by observers and the GOES-12 satellite detected only one event. Do take note of the extra chart below. I somehow got the data for August mixed up with September and the chart was wrong last month. The one below is the correct chart for September 2007.

An odd thing happened to me this month. On October 7th I got a trace with three distinct SID events as can be seen on the upper graph to the right. To my amazement there were no X-Ray flares that day reported by GOES-12. I have no idea what may have caused these events. Maybe GRBs but I find this unlikely because they are so distinct and strong. Oddly enough, my other steup, as shown in the lower chart shows absolutely nothing. Granted this setup is not as sensitive as the other but odd that there is no correlation whatsoever. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Solar Flare Summary Based on GOES-12 Data

Solar Flare Summary Based on GOES-12 Data
Corrected Chart for September 2007

Sunspot Data

American Relative Sunspot Numbers(Ra) for October 2007 [boldface = maximum, minimum] Day N Raw Mean Ra 1 27 4 3 2 28 1 1 3 25 0 0 4 30 0 0 5 29 4 2 6 33 15 10 7 35 14 10 8 26 2 1 9 29 0 0 10 26 0 0 11 27 0 0 12 31 0 0 13 36 0 0 14 30 0 0 15 36 0 0 16 37 0 0 17 31 1 1 18 32 0 0 19 35 0 0 20 37 0 0 21 38 0 0 22 21 0 0 23 24 0 0 24 24 0 0 25 23 0 0 26 24 0 0 27 26 0 0 28 35 0 0 29 28 0 0 30 30 0 0 31 34 0 0 Means 29.9 1.3 0.9 Total No. of Observers: 57 Total No. of Observations: 927

October 2007 Sunspot Observers AAP A. Abbott 5 AJV J. Alonso 21 ARAG G. Araujo 30 BARH H. Barnes 13 BATR R. Battaiola 5 BEB R. Berg 16 BEDJ J. Bedient 22 BLAJ J. Blackwell 6 BMF M. Boschat 21 BRAB B. Branchett 28 BRAD D. Branchett 12 BRAR R. Branch 26 BROB R. Brown 28 BVC A. Buck 31 BYG Y. Brovarets 18 CHAG G. Morales 26 CKB B. Cudnik 25 CLZ L. Corp 15 CNT D. Chantiles 8 COMT T. Compton 15 CVJ J. Carvajal 22 DEJV J. van Delft 14 DGP G. Dyck 11 FERJ J. Fernandez 8 FLET T. Fleming 28 GFT F. Gobet 16 HALB B. Halls 7 HAYK K. Hay 8 HMQ M. Harris 7 KAPJ J. Kaplan 16 KROL L. Krozel 3 KUZM M. Kuzmin 1 LARJ J. Larriba 15 LERM M. Lerman 3 MARJ J. Maranon 31 MCE E. Mochizuki 20 MEU E. Mason 7 MILJ J. Miller 10 MMI M. Moeller 12 OATS S. Oatney 19 OBSO IPS Observatory 15 RICE E. C. Richardson 10 RITA A. Ritchie 11 SCGL G. Schott 20 SIMC C. Simpson 11 STEM G. Stemmler 15 STQ N. Stoikidis 20 SUZM M. Suzuki 23 SZUM M. Szulc 27 TESD D. Teske 24 TJV J. Temprano 15 URBP P. Urbanski 17 VARG A. Vargas 23 VIDD D. Vidican 17 WILW W. Wilson 24 WRP R. Wheeler 3 YESH H. Yesilyaprak 23

Reporting addresses: Sunspot Reports Email: solar@aavso.org Postal Mail: AAVSO, 49 Bay State Rd. Cambridge, MA, 02138 Fax: 617-354-0665 SID Flare Reports Email: noatak@aol.com Postal Mail: Mike Hill, 114 Prospect St., Marlboro, MA, 01752

Smoothed Mean Sunspot Numbers (Rsm) from January 2000 to April 2007 (Waldmeier method).

10 cm Solar Flux and American Relative Sunspot Numbers (Ra) for October 2007 (10cm Source: http://www.drao.nrc.ca/icarus)