Re: What is the proposite of observing the sun spots?

Sunspots are small dark areas on the surface of the Sun- They are caused
by magnetic storms on the surface of the Sun, and they last for a few 
days up to many weeks. In an 11-year cycle the number of sunspots varies -
every 11 years there are many more sunspots than a few years earlier and
some years later. When there are few sunspots there may even be long
periods with not a single sunspot.

Sunspots are a little difficult to see because they are small and the
Sun is VERY bright. This is why they were not discovered in the West
until about 400 years ago by Galileo Galilei. Later it was discovered
that Chineese and asian astronomers had been aware of spots on the Sun
for many thousand years.

YOU MUST NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN DIRECTLY, OR USE AN ORDINARY TELESCOPE
TO LOOK THROUGH AT THE SUN! You can damage your eyesight forever by
doing this.

Safe ways to observe the Sun and its spots are to use a telescope to
project an image of the Sun onto a flat white surface and then focus the
telescope until you can see the spots. If there are no spots, focusing
is difficult, but there may be a faint pattern of lighter areas on the
surface and these you can focus on.

Some telescopes have a filter that cuts the light and then it can be safe
to look through the telescope at the Sun - however, and this is important
- it must be a filter designed for use in solar observations and the
filter must be one placed at the front of the telescope, not at the end,
near your eye.

As long as you follow the above safety rules you can do many interesting
observations of the Sun:

As the Sun rotates slowly as seen from Earth you can measure the rotation
period by following spots across the Sun for several days. Sometimes the
same spot comes out again after having been hidden from view because it
was on the back of the Sun for a while. This is an easy observation.

By following many spots for a long time scientists found out that the
Sun is not solid - spots at one latitude on the Sun rotate faster than
spots at another latitude. This observation  requires patience and lots
of sunny days.

If you have the time to look at the Sun daily for many years then you
can do important work by just counting the number of spots you see each
day and writing down the information very carefully.

If you are lucky and see a very large spot you can make very detailed
drawings of it from day to day and see how it evolves. This is something
you can do in a few days and get some beautiful pictures if you draw
carefully.

Around the Sunspots you may be able to see small bright areas that follow
the spots. These areas of brighter surface are hotter than the
dark areas and actually contribute more light than the spots remove -
the Sun therefore is slightly brighter when there are many spots!

Sometimes the planets Venus or Mercury transit across the surface of
the Sun as seen from Earth and you can see them as small spots. Then you
realise that the planets are the same size as the Sunspots - or smaller!

The Sun generates disturbances in space when there are many sunspots and
these disturbances can be measured with magnetic equipment on Earth. In
Brazil there is such a geomagnetic observatory in Vassouras at Latitude
22.4 degrees South and Longitude 43.65 degrees West that you may be
able to visit. The scientist in charge of this station is Luiz Carlos
Carvalho Benyosef and his address is Observatório Magnético de Vassouras,
Rua Lourival Bispo 89 - C.P. 85622 27700-000 Vassouras - R.J.  BRAZIL.
The disturbances may also create 'aurora' in our atmosphere, which
are glowing sheets and whirls of light in the night sky. At tropical
latitudes these phenomena are rare, however.

If you look at the the Internet page http://www.spaceweather.com/ you
can see lots of information about the Sun, aurora, and anything else
seen in the Sky.