These activities can be used with observations of the Sun that you get from Views From Observatories or Views From Satellites.

1. Go to the web site and print an image of the Sun each day for 8 to 10 days (or more!). You can also use the archive of images and print an image of the Sun each day for 8 to 10 days (or more!). Be sure that each image has a date and time telling you when the image was recorded. Try to get an image from the same time of day on each day. Label each of your sunspots. While you can use any name, number, or letter to label your sunspots, scientists have agreed to number the sunspots in the order they appear. An example of sunspots and their numbers are shown below. This number system will be necessary to vote for your Sunspot Suspect. You can get the correct numbers for today at the Sunspot Suspect site.
   
   Click here for large sunspot image.

2. Look carefully at the sunspots. Discuss the differences you see and make predictions for observations you will take during the next few days. Don't forget to relate these observations to the Solar Cycle and predict where you think we are in the cycle now, and what you think the solar activity will be for the next year. Will it increase or decrease? Why do you think so?
3. Don't forget to vote for the Sunspot Suspect, the sunspot most likely to have the right conditions for a solar flare.
4. Record the number of sunspots on the Sunspot Observation Graph. The Day axis refers to the number of days since the beginning of observations. If a day is skipped because of a weekend or cloudy weather, that day must be skipped on the graph.
5. Choose a favorite sunspot and estimate its size. It is often useful to compare the size of a sunspot to the size of Earth. Research on the size of the Sun and the size of the Earth. The "Sun and Earth Size Comparison" as part of the Athena Curriculum ( http://inspire.ospi.wednet.edu:8001/curric/space/sun/sunearth.html) could be a good place to start this exploration.
6. Create your own "flip" book of index cards to see how the sunspots have changed position.
7. Complete the Sunspot Observation Graph. Access the International Sunspot Number compiled by the Sunspot Index Data Center in Belgium at http://science.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/solar/greenwch/spot_num.txt. (The numbers tabulated in are the monthly averages of SunSpotNumber (SSN) and standard deviation (DEV) derived from the International Sunspot Numbers. You only need the SSN.) Graph the last 3 to 5 years of data. Different groups of students should graph different years and then put all graphs together to observe long-term trends. You should be aware that official sunspot numbers will probably be higher than your count. Researchers use a different system for determining sunspot numbers (see http://www.sunspot.noao.edu/IMAGES/sunspot_numbers.html). Compare the pattern you observed for numbers of sunspots on the Sunspot Observation graph with the trend you can see on the graph of data from the International Sunspot Number data. (If you wish to become more involved in contributing to counts of sunspots, you can find out more at the SPA (Society for Popular Astronomy) Solar Section ( http://www.popastro.com/sections/solar/intro.htm).)

   

8. Provide an explanation for the change in position of the spots.
9. Research Galileo and his exploration of sunspots. Visit http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo for more information