Our Nearest Star 100514

It's a bright sunny autumn day. A perfect day to turn the telescope (with proper filter) sunward to see what the sunspot activity is. Sunspot 2178 (left) and 2181 (right) were particularly interesting today. 2181 could produce an M-class flare. From SpaceWeather.com, "Sunspot AR2181 has a 'beta-gamma' magnetic field that harbors energy for M-class flares." Here is a close up of that area. Photos were taken with Canon 60D mounted to a Celestron C8 with 2x Barlow.