Today I had the opportunity to see and photograph the giant sunspot Active Region 2192, it already has rotated a bit away from our direction, so the probability of a massive solar storm with possible damage to space and other infrastructure is reduced.
Detail of the image above:
The images were taken with a Nikon D7000 camera using a Astro-Professional ED80 f/7 doublet refractor. A Baader solar filter ND3.8 was used for filtering the sunlight.
Inspite the low solar maximum that we are experience currently, the sun showed a quite active surface today:
Not only the number of sunspots increases during solar maximum, also the location of the sunspots changes. From the beginning of a solar cycle (at the minimum) the location of the sunspots change from higher solar latitudes to lower solar latitudes at maximum. That means that at solar maximum the sunspots tend to group around the solar equator. The new solar cycle would be signified if a sunspot would appear nearer to the north or south solar pole. From the image below one can see that we are experiencing the solar maximum currently.
This week a huge sunspot rotated into view:
