Our Sun Today

This is a portrait of our Sun today.  It is covered with spots!  Sunspots.  The dark spots are areas on the surface of the sun where there is strong magnetic activity, and so they are cooler areas which we can see as being darker.  The Sun has an 11-year cycle, where it goes from minimum where there are no sunspots, to Maximum, which phase we are in now, as you can see from all these spots.  I set up one of my telescopes with a special solar filer made from nickel coated mylar material.  It is a sophisticated filter which is necessary to protect my eyes and my camera while viewing or photographing the sun.  This is amazing to see so many sunspots all over the surface, in a number of groups.  Yes, the sun is active.  Please click on this image - I uploaded a larger than normal image size so you will be able to see more detail after you click on the image.