SIERRA COLLEGE
ASTRONOMY DEPARTMENT

Below is an image of the sun taken on March 28th, 2001 at 3:05 P.M. P.D.T. (Pacific Daylight Time) from the Sierra College campus by Professor Dave Kenyon. The picture was taken through a C-8 telescope at prime focus using 400ASA film and a solar filter.

The dark spots on the sun are sunspots. Sunspots are magnetic storms which appear from time to time on the photosphere (the Sun's visible surface). They appear darker because they are cooler than the surrounding surface of the Sun. This sunspot is about 20 times the size of the Earth and resulted in an aurora display on March 30th observed by many in the Northern Hemisphere including Sierra College's Astronomy 11 class on March 30th, 2001.

 

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