How can you observe the sunspot activity safely?

How can you observe the sunspot activity safely?

One safe way to observe sunspots or eclipses is to project an image of the Sun through a telescope or binoculars onto a white screen — paper plates, walls and sidewalks all work nicely. If you’re using a telescope, be sure that any small finder telescope is capped.

How do you track sun spots?

Tracking Sunspots Use letters or numbers to identify your sunspot clusters. You can write directly on the image. Place the latitude/longitude grid (this will be a clear transparency) directly on top of the image. Using the grid, record the latitude and longitude of your sunspots.

How do you make a sunspot viewer?

Have students build a pinhole viewer to view sunspots. Take the cardboard box and cut a 2 centimeter x 2 centimeter hole at one end. Tape a piece of aluminum foil over the hole, making sure it is taut. Carefully use the pushpin or sewing needle to poke a hole into the foil.

Where are we now in the sunspot cycle?

25
We are now in Cycle 25. But sometimes the spots don’t appear at all. This was the case for 80 days of the first six months of the current solar cycle, which started in December 2019. It was greater still for the same period in Cycle 24, where there were 281 spot-free days.

Can we see sunspots?

Larger sunspots can be visible from Earth without the aid of a telescope. They may travel at relative speeds, or proper motions, of a few hundred meters per second when they first emerge. Most solar flares and coronal mass ejections originate in magnetically active regions around visible sunspot groupings.

What is the safest way to view the Sun and its sunspots?

There are two ways to look at the Sun safely: by direct viewing, with a proper filter over the front of the telescope, or by projecting the Sun’s image onto a piece of paper. They protect the eye against both visible and invisible radiations and the telescope itself against heat.

How long do you have to look at the sun to go blind?

The length of time it takes for the sun to damage your eyes depends on how long you are staring at the sun without protection. For example, it only takes 100 seconds for your eyes to incur permanent retinal damage if you’re looking directly at the sun, with no protection, for that entire time.

What happens if you take a picture of the sun?

It also redirects the sun’s light away from the sensor and through the viewfinder. So when you’re looking at the sun through your camera, you’re only damaging your eyes. It’s not until you actually take the picture that you’re exposing your camera’s image sensor to the sun’s harmful rays. You’ll do damage to your eyes.

Where do the sunspots appear during the solar cycle?

When nearing the solar minimum, the sunspot regions appear around the solar equator and as a new cycle starts again, sunspots of the new cycle will start to emerge at a high latitude. This recurrent behaviour of sunspots give rise to the ‘Butterfly’ pattern and was first discovered by Edward Maunder in 1904.

How big is the sunspot on the Sun today?

Today’s Sun Sunspot number 11 -11 New regions 0 10.7cm Solar Radio Flux 76 -1 Carrington Rotation 2245 2245

How many sunspots can a Terminator reach?

Terminator reached. Significant X-flare possible. 38 Sunspot 2845 4 AR2844 Rare Southern Sunspot 4 Does humanity actually need Mars colonization? 27 Coronal Mass Ejection Research Project 20 Support SpaceWeatherLive.com!

Is there a way to support spaceweatherlive.com?

Support SpaceWeatherLive.com! A lot of people come to SpaceWeatherLive to follow the Sun’s activity or if there is aurora to be seen, but with more traffic comes higher server costs. Consider a donation if you enjoy SpaceWeatherLive so we can keep the website online!