Sol

[shatto]

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ima...13-214_lrg.mov
For the animated version.

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

Any idea as to the sunspot count?

[VetteOwner]

lol when i saw sol i thought S.O.L. haha

neat find though!

[FrugalFloyd]

Originally Posted by JoeBob

Any idea as to the sunspot count?

Today's solar activity reports on cloudynights.com are up to AR1093 and AR1099. AR = Active Region, which includes filaments, flares, prominences, and sunspots. They started counting ARs in 1972, and reached 10,000 on June 14, 2002. Since then, most reports drop the first 1. So today's ARs are roughly the 1100th since June 14, 2002. Individual sunspots aren't counted. One AR may contain several sunspots, or none, since ARs are electromagnetically active regions that may kick a prominence up 60,000 miles off the surface of the Sun.

I've been a solar observer for the past five years. During the previous four years, I saw perhaps an average of 2 sunspots/month. This Summer, I've been seeing 2 or 3 per week. The peak of the current 11 year solar cycle should occur in 2013.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by SentraSE-R

During the previous four years, I saw perhaps an average of 2 sunspots/month. This Summer, I've been seeing 2 or 3 per week. The peak of the current 11 year solar cycle should occur in 2013.

Maybe I'll keep that mechanically controlled carburetor on my Buick after all.

[FrugalFloyd]

Just shield your EFI system with tinfoil, be sure to mount a pyramid on top of your coil, and you'll be fine - as long as you're not on a CIA target list, and don't live/drive near a military base

[GasSavers_JoeBob]

I'm just hoping for some good 20 and 10 meter DX.

IIRC, we haven't had anything like the sunspot maxima of the late '50s...sunspot counts of well over 200. We survived that just fine, and the ham radio guys had lots of fun.