March 12th

Back at school, which means more observing time :)

Ali stayed in the room and worked on the paper, while I went upstairs to shortly observe. There was not much time to observe today because our Professor went over Lecture time beforehand, giving less Lab time.

Here is what I observed:

At 2:10pm, there were many prominences and a few big sunspots. In total, about four prominences were seen and 4 sunspots. It was interesting to see the sun today, perhaps because I hadn't observed it in a while, because there were two areas on the sun, right next to each other, in the lower hemisphere of the sun, that look like craters. The moon has craters, but the sun, I believe, doesn't. I don't know if is solar flares, but these areas honestly look like craters. I am going to have to look into it.

At 2:12pm, a giant prominence is seen on the top of the sun (noon position), with two prominences at the other end (6 o'clock). The entire lower hemisphere is filled with solar flares. There is also two sunspots. One sunspot is at the 9 o'clock position, and the other one is near the solar flares, at around 6 o'clock.

A minute later, at 2:13pm, three sunspots were seen. They were scattered about the sun (one in the 9 o'clock position, one at 1 o'clock, and one at 3 o'clock). I am surprised to see these because a minute ago, the data was different and these did not exist or appear. Can the sun really change that quickly? Also, the giant prominent at the noon position is still seen, along with now four prominences at the lower hemisphere (from 7 to 5 o'clock). A "crater" is still seen, which is hard to explain exactly what it is and how it looked, and now there is a dark jagged line of what I believe are sunspots.

At 2:14pm, the only change is that where the crater is, there are two solar flares. Perhaps these "craters" are flares at a different stage of the process? Also, the dark line is gone, and there is only the sunspot at the 9 o'clock position.

At 2:17pm, three prominences were seen (one at noon, one at 6 o'clock, and one at 5 o'clock), and two dark lines now, one sunspot (at 9 o'clock), two "craters", and now it appears as if there is another crater forming by that sunspot, but I don't think that is possible.

At 2:18pm, three prominences were seen in slightly different places (one at noon, one at 5 o'clock, and one  at 8 o'clock). Also, there are two sunspots (one at the 10 o'clock position, and one at the 6 o'clock position).

By 2:20pm, activity began to increase. There are now three dark lines, a sunspot (at 9 o'clock) with a bunch of solar flares around it, and three prominences, as well as three "craters" grouped together with a few solar flares around it.

Also, I am wondering if Daylight Savings time is going to throw off our data because the sun is now higher in the sky, located at a different place in the sky, because it is an hour off than when we were observing it beforehand.