Sunspot AR2665

I read this morning in my email from Space Weather that the sun was rotating a new sunspot towards Earth. After my success with photographing Daphnia through a microscope, I decided to attempt the same thing with my 90 mm cataoptric.

The sun magnified 20 power as seen through a cellphone camera. The sun is bright enough with even the solar filter that a less than steady hand could get this image.

Sunspot AR2665 is nearly the size of Jupiter, which is 11 times larger than Earth. The sunspot has produced an M-class solar flare and a radio blackout over Australia and Asia. We might see coronal mass ejections from this sunspot, which increases our chances of seeing aurora. Keep your eyes and ears open.