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Live From The Aurora Educator's Guide

Vote on your Sunspot Suspect

Tutorial

Welcome to Views From Students. You can observe sunspots safely and easily from school or home with very simple instruments. Remember, however, never look directly at the Sun. You can severely damage your eyes.

What You Need
The instruments we recommend project the image of the Sun on paper. You can build or acquire your own through any one of the following methods.

Making a Homemade Sunspot Viewer (Telescope)
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/sunearthday/2003/educators_guide2003/pdf/ss_act_hsv.pdf

Build your own pinhole camera/projector
http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/how.html

Binoculars
http://www.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/history4.html

VIEWING THE SUN WITH A TELESCOPE THROUGH A SOLAR FILTER

Ordering a Sunspotter:

For easy and very safe sunspot viewing you can order the 'Sunspotter' by Learning Technologies (800-537-8703 or on-line at http://www.starlab.com)

What You Do There are a number of activities connected to viewing sunspots in the Live from the Aurora Educators Guide, available when you register with the SON (Student Observation Network) and available online by clicking the button to the left.

The key element to all of these activities is to observe the sunspots at the same time of day for as many days as you can. If you can't get out to observe sunspots at your own home or school on a particular day, you can "observe" sunspot activity for that day from Views From Observatories or Views From Satellites.

Make Observations
When you make your own observations, project the image of the Sun on a piece of white paper using an instrument like the Sunspotter. Carefully draw the outline of the Sun on the paper and make marks on the paper where the sunspots are. Try to make each mark the same size, shape, and position as the sunspot projected on the paper.

Compare Observations
Then compare your drawings with images from professional ground telescopes (Views From Observatories) and from the NASA SOHO satellite (Views From Satellites).

Vote for your Sunspot Suspect
The Sunspot Suspect button to the left will allow you to cast your vote for the sunspot most likely to be the location for an energetic flare that might affect Earth. Your vote will be combined with votes from schools across the nation. The Sunspot Suspect with the most votes will be announced daily at Space Weather Alert System.