Observations from 1982 of facular limb darkening and excess solar oblateness

Observations of facular regions on 35 days during 1982 obtained with the Extreme Limb Photometer are reported. The data were obtained at a wavelength of 0.53 m with two apertures, No. 1 covering 36 arc sec and No. 2 covering 11 arc sec, inwards from the limb. The mean contrasts for all regions detected are 1.05 ± 0.12% and 1.59 ± 0.16%, respectively. The mean contrast of the faculae closer to the limb (aperture 2) is 1.51 ± 0.23 times that from aperture No. 1. This contrast ratio can be fit to a ^–1-curve. These results are consistent with those from 1975 and 1979 observations and may be consistent with the facular limb-darkening function determined by Libbrecht and Kuhn (1984, 1985) if our data are normalized by the area of the solar surface. However, no calibrations or corrections are required to obtain the mean facular contrast presented here.