The Sun Spins

Our star has slightly cooler regions called sunspots which rotate with the rest of the star. From the patterns, the average �rotation rate of the Sun can be determined.

Solar viewing can be very dangerous.� Sunglasses (even many in a row) and exposed camera film do NOT make it safe to watch.� �One approach is to hold binoculars to project to a white screen as shown in:

https://spaceweather.com/sunspots/doityourself.html

or

https://www.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/history4.html

You need a big piece of cardboard at the binoculars to put the viewing screen in darkness.�

There are specific solar telescopes which have safe filters.� Hydrogen alpha telescopes only let one red colour to be seen and that reveals interesting patterns, especially prominences which are pushed out of the Sun by magnetic fields.� Those telescopes are expensive, but give a chance to show astronomy during lunch hour to other students.�

https://solar-center.stanford.edu/observe/Safely-Observing-the-Sun-for-Yourself.pdf has a list of ways to safely observe the Sun. �There are other brands than shown. �If you are going to buy a solar telescope for student use, get it from an established astronomy store, rather than an unknown online discount provider. �Do not use the ones with a solar filter at the eyepiece.� You can get advice about that from people in your local RASC centre. ��

Before this activity, it�s useful if students have actually looked at the Sun over a few days and perhaps practiced sketching sunspots.� �If the Sun is observed near noon (1 PM if daylight time),� the solar north pole is approximately up.� However, sometimes during solar minimums,� there are no sunspots for weeks at a time.���� https://spaceweather.com/ give the latest patterns.� It might be worthwhile only doing this activity when there are sunspots.

https://solar-center.stanford.edu/spin-sun/spin-sun.html is an activity where students look at printed �images of the Sun (or student sketches) over various weeks and observe the pattern of how the sunspots move. ���Or https://astroedu.iau.org/en/activities/2103/ has a comparable activity.

It suggests you get images from the SOHO satellite which was launched in 1995.� and since then other missions to observe the sun have been launched such as the Solar Dynamic Observatory launched in 2010.�� A useful image for sunspots is:

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_2048_HMIIC.jpg

The date and universal time (ie London England standard time) are given at the bottom.�� Each observatory records at a variety of different wavelengths corresponding to specific energy levels of atoms on the Sun.

https://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/assets/img/latest/latest_2048_0171.jpg

shows the solar flares given off by the Sun.

After this activity,� show this power point:

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fb72/ebf3b2083a06f0117865631d8d734ac67fbb.pdf

Add Powerpoint (not ready yet) showing

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Prominences

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Flares reaching Earth aurora displays

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App to get aurora predictions

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Carrington Event and effect on Earth if it happens again.