WARNING! The Sun is extremely dangerous. Looking at it
with any sort of optical aid will result in instant blindness.
Look here to see how I do it.
After a particularly long minimum, the activity of the Sun really started to increase towards the end of 2020. I noticed the first spot of the new cycle that was bigger than tiny in November 2020.
The thumbnails below will take you to a page of pictures taken on the date given. On those pages moving your mouse pointer over the picture of the full Sun will show you the number designations of the spots.
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Sunspot Designations |
Sunspots and Active Regions are numbered by the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and started on 5th January 1972. These numbers now exceed 10000 but often the first or the first two digits are omitted. The designations of current sunspots can no longer be found on the SOHO site, but they can be obtained from NOAA. Similarly the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii no longer maintains its archive. |
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27th November 2020. At last the Sun seems to be becoming more active after a long minimum. These are the first spots of any significant size that I have seen for a long time. |