ZWO Seestar s50 in solar mode to capture the sun's sunspots today, Tuesday 8/20/24:

213 total sunspots, +43 more than yesterday.

Recent Record Number of Sunspots!
On 8/10/24 there were 382 total sunspots.
On 8/9/24 there were 337 total sunspots.
Both of these dates were record amounts, surpassing 285 sunspots back in 1958.

Sunspot Clusters AKA Active Regions:

AR3784 (AR13784) has 5 (-9) sunspots covering 310mH (~1.9x area of Earth). It has a 65% chance of producing at least a c-class flare, 25% M-class, 5% X-class, 5% Proton-class.

AR3785 (AR13785) has 6 (-4) sunspots covering 80mH. It has a 45% chance of producing at least a c-class flare.

AR3788 (AR13788) has 1 sunspots covering 90mH (~0.5x area of Earth). It has a 5% chance of producing at least a c-class flare.

AR3789 (AR13789) has 9 (-1) sunspots covering 120mH (~0.7x area of Earth). It has a 45% chance of producing at least a c-class flare & 5% M-class.

AR3790 (AR13790) has 25 (+5) sunspots covering 400mH (~2.4x area of Earth). It has a 70% chance of producing at least a c-class flare & 25% M-class.

AR3792 (AR13792) has 2 (+1) sunspot covering 400mH (~2.4x area of Earth). It has a 25% chance of producing at least a c-class flare & 25% M-class.

AR3793 (AR13793) has 8 (+0) sunspots covering 50mH (-130) It has a 25% chance of producing at least a c-class flare.

AR3794 (AR13794) has 15 (-1) sunspots covering 240mH (-60) (~1.4x area of Earth). It has a 25% chance of producing at least a c-class flare.

AR3796 (AR13796) has 14 (+0) sunspots covering 240mH (+60). It has a 60% chance of producing at least a c-class flare & 20% M-calss.

AR3793 (AR13793), AR3797 (AR13797) & AR3798 (AR13798) are 50mH or smaller.

Area of sunspots are measured in millionths of a solar hemisphere (MH).

For updates on today's Sun flares, visit:
www.spaceweatherlive.com

Daily Sunspots is a series of short videos that document the spots on the sun every day that it's possible from my location. Generally, 10-30 seconds of RAW video is captured, and images are then stacked to create a more detailed final image.

What are Sunspots?- Sunspots arise from magnetic disturbances that change how the outer layers of the sun regionally mix, uncovering cooler spots that appear darker on the surface of the sun.

What's the point?- Sunspots and sunspot clusters are part of solar active regions (AR). We track active regions on the sun because they can cause solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME). Particles ejected from CMEs can hit the Earth several hours later (generally 15-18h) and cause aurora, and large solar storms can do damage to electronics, our electrical grid and satellites. Plus, sunspots look cool, and they are huge! Some can be several times the size of Earth.

Why should I care?- The Carrington Event was the most intense geomagnetic storm in recorded history, peaking on 1–2 September 1859 during solar cycle 10. It created strong auroral displays that were reported globally and caused sparking and even fires in telegraph stations. A geomagnetic storm of this magnitude occurring today has the potential to cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts, damage and human deaths due to extended cuts of the electrical power grid. A Carrington-class event today would result in between $0.6 and $2.6 trillion in damages to the U.S. alone.
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Sun Observation- I try to post daily updates relatively early in the day so that others that have interest can see what's going on. I have heard from some other solar astronomers that they appreciate these short videos to see whether or not it's worth getting out their Hydrogen-alpha (H-alpha, Ha) solar telescopes, and it also gives them a preview of the sunspots and active regions.

Pino Astro: Astronomy for Everyone!

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