Questions

For this project, we must come up with a few questions to lead our research, and boy, do I have plenty. I notced that I use all this terminology, but I don't really know what it means, or understand it. Therefore, some background information and terminology of the sun may be useful. This led me to the following questions for this research:

• What is a sunspot? What causes it?
• What is and causes a solar flare?
• What is a solar storm?
• What is a solar minimum/maximum?
• What causes color variation in the sun (some days it appears red, other days it looks more orange and yellow)?
• How do sunspots affect Earth? Is there an effect?
• How will the solar mazimum effect Earth?
• Do solar flares/storms have an effect on Earth?
• What causes the Northern Lights? Is it sun related?
• What is coronal mass?
• What is the relationship between sunspots and temperature of the sun?
• How does the sun relate to Earth's magneticc field?

These are the gist of the questions, and I honestly feel so unaware of the sun and these answeres.
Looks like I have a lot of work to do...These questions, I'm sure, will be answered in due time, hopefully in the paper.

Feb. 1st

What better way to start a new month than with observing the sun?

Ali and I observed the sun today in class, but once again, it was not long. The wind made it almost impossible to find the sun and look at it for longer than a few seconds. Each time we found the sun, we'd lose it because of the wind moving the clouds, telescope, and our hands (which were shaking already from the coldness), before we could set/tighten the telescope in place. But, it is okay- we are still learning. We are by far not pros or scientists with this telescope, but one day, it will be Mastered. Moreover, I have learned to bring gloves for next time.

Today it was especially exciting to see the sun because there were a lot of sunspots, but only a few solar flares. Overall, not much activity, but I have never seen so many sunspots before! Due to my poor eyesight, I have trouble focusing on details on the sun, but managed to see 5 large blemishes of sunspots on the sun. There may have been more, or many blotched together to look like a giant one, but that is what I saw. Ali and I have different focuses when it comes to the telescope, we learned, and so it is a little difficult sharing the telescope, going back and forth between her good eyesight and my poor sight with the more defined focus setting. I find that once she changes the setting I had it on, it is hard to find the sun that clear again. The same goes for her when I change the focus setting on the telescope.

After we finished observing, we went back downstairs and started the introduction to the paper during the remainder of class. Ali typed it with her computer and sent it to me so that I may have a copy of it as well. I am beginning to wonder how formal this paper should be.

Lots od sun spots- not much activity

Jan. 30th

This was the first day of real observation. After spending most of the time finding the sun, Ali and I, with the help of the professor, learned how to identify certain blemishes on the sun. We learned what a sunspot looks like, as well as a solar flare and prominence. Sun spots appear as black dots, while solar flares are these squiggled lines that move, almost like bacteria, and prominences look like triangels.

Seeing the sun for the first time was amazing. It was a beautiful orange and red color, one that I don't believe I have ever seen before. It was bright, but not that kind that hurts the eyes. It was exciting to see activity on the sun, and was a tough concept to comprehend that the image I saw through the telescope was an object in space so far away, better yet, the sun. It was unbelieveable.

Note:

First arrow = Line = Prominences

Second arrow = Solar Flares = Squiggles

Third arrow = dots = sunspots

Fourth arrow = This spot has 5 patches of sunspots in the area.

There is a lot of speckling.

Jan. 26th

I saw Ali outside the residence hall that we both live in. Living in the same building is beneficial since she is my partner, so we could easily meet up. Today we talked about starting the intro of the paper on Monday’s class.

We have also been talking about some ideas for the paper through Facebook.

Jan. 25th

The professor showed us around the lab and observatory/observing deck that we will be working out. Luckily, we had enough time to finally start observing the sun! The professor wheeled out the sun telescope to the observation deck (which is a tiny thing, about a foot long, on a stand on a wheely table), taught us how to use it, which is simple but you basically take two caps off (one that covers the eye hole, one that covers the lens), tighten or loosen the mobility of the telescope, and to line it up with the sun. To line it up, you just have to eye the left edge of the telescope with the sun, so that they are lined up (form a line), and search for a white dot on an area of the telescope. Unfortunately, it was too cloudy that the sun could be hard to find through the telescope, and even harder to see once found. The sun telescope was shared with another group, even though there was a second telescope they could use. After trying to find the sun, with the help of the Professor, we wheeled the telescope back inside the building, and headed back to the classroom.

For the rest of the class time, Ali and I began sharing and discussing the information that we found while researching the sun on our own, and both agreed that it was hard to find any information on the correlation between weather and sunspots, and decided to not talk about weather in the paper.

Jan. 24th- Research Torture

This is my first day of actual research on the sun, and let me tell you, it is quite intense. After spending two hours in the Honors Center, I believe that it is almost impossible of  finding out if the sun affects the weather at all. I'm thinking about dropping area of the paper. All I could find a lot on was the sun's relations to magnetism. I sent the information to myself, after copying the sites and some quotes down on a Word Document. There is so much information on the sun that it is very overwhelming. One page led to another, which led to another, and another, and another, and another, and another. I have noticed that the pretty pictures of the sun is what lure you in to reading all these articles on it, and then once sucked in, it's impossible to get out. I started this research with the Blackboard sites provided by the Professor, and then it exploded from there.

As much as I would love to share all the information I have found, there is too much and it may confuse you, dear reader, so I have decided to sum up the information that is pages long, in one or two sentences. In short, the sun affects Earth in the sense that solar flares cause a lot of power outages, due to overstimulated, electrified circuits (I think...). This led to examples of incidents and its effect on Earth, which is a negative one on our economy.

I may have to go over those notes again...

Jan. 23rd - The Paper Outline

The following LAB class period was used to discuss the layout of the paper with Ali, and what exactly we will be researching and observing. We have decided that we will research the sun in relation to weather, including UV rays and global warming, the magnetic poles, and northern lights. For the weather, we want to see how sun spots and solar flares affect the Earth's weather, why they are a big deal. We would like to see if there will be an increase in solar radiation, and if we are protected, by comparing the sun spots of previous years up to today, as well as what solar wind is, and if solar flares cause damage to Earth.

As for the area about the magnetic poles, we will like to see if the sun's poles will be switching, and if they affect our North and South Poles switching. We would also like to know if electricity will be affected from solar poles switching, and if it will occur fast or slow. We would also like to know more about magnetic storms.

As for the northern lights, we would like to know how the sun spots affect the appearance of them, and how they occur.

Overall, we would like to see if sunspot, solar flares, and magnetic storms have increased and its effect on Earth. Basically, are we in a solar maximum? And, what does that mean to Earthlings?

This discussion in class has only made me realize how much I do not know about the sun.

Note: This is a rough rough draft of our paper and research, so far.

Jan. 18th and 19th - Topics

After hearing the topics to choose from, on the 18th, I had narrowed it down between researching the sun or discovering an asteroid using Pan-STARRS and International Astronomical Search Collaberation. As cool as the asteroid search seems to be, I think I am leaning towards studying the sun because I am awful with technology, and it may be hard to make sure that if I do find an asteroid, it isn't one that is already found. Plus, the sun sounds interesting, especially because it is the giant star that we orbit around. Not much about the sun is taught in school, and to see it up close with a telescope for once, where it won't hurt my eyes and blind me, sounds amazing.

After talking with a classmate, Ali, about class, we discovered that we would work great together. We both want to receive an A in the class, and are hard workers. We both have similar ambition, drives, and motivation. We knew that we could count on each other, since we are not fans of group work, due to bad experiences of always doing the work while others in the group slacked off. So, I got my partner, but what topic do I choose?

After later discussion with Ali about the topics, and her e-mailing the Professor for clarification and such, we decided to do the sun. Perhaps we could do the asteroid one as well, only not for a grade, but for fun?

Step One: Complete.

The Beginning

For my Honors PHYS 107 class, we are required to do a research component related to astrology. My partner, Ali, and myself, have decided to research the sun and see if there are any changes in the solar cycle, such as the number of sunspots. With collected research from our own observations with a solar telescope. as well as through online research, we will eventually write a paper about how these observations of solar storms and sunspots affect Earth. This blog will serve as a journal of this research.

Note: I had started this journal in a notebook, and am now switching over to a blog, so these next few blog posts will be from a previous day, though posted on the same day, if that makes sense.