Hi All, on hols in Agadir, Morocco since Tues morning. There's a very strong sea mist here most days so far - walking along the beach Weds afternoon with my niece when she commented how strange the sun looked thru the haze - it was very easy to look at just wearing sunglasses as the hazy mist acted as a filter so we could see the sun as a big 'white ball'. I was amazed to realise that I could see a sunspot just to the right & above the centre - stopped to look at it for quite a while & it must have been huge (or 2 spots close together?) for us to be able to see it so clearly! I have never seen a sunspot naked eye before (as obviously I wouldn't usually look directly at the sun).
So just wondering has anyone else ever been able to spot a sunspot like this? Twas quite exciting for us (well, me anyway....)
Bernie
This link
www.solarmonitor.org/index.php?date=20110803&indexnum=1
will show you the state of the sun on Wednesday. I suppose it is possible you say the spots labelled 11263 but they are pretty small relative to the disk of the sun. You would have to have razor sharp eyesight, it would be like seeing the crater Plato on the moon without a telescope.
I know you know that naked eye solar observation is a bad idea get yourself a solar filter, they are safe and cheap and then you really will see sunspots, and yes it is pretty exciting.
yes you can see sunspots with the naked eye and you probably saw numbers 1261 or 1263. In fact the chinese were looking at naked eye spots well before Gallileo ever turned a scope toward the Sun. 1261 let off 2 large flares that resulted in coronal mass ejections which impacted earth friday night check out the atmosphere forum here.
www.spaceweather.com
is also a good site for the current solar situation.
In fact 1263 has just let off another M class (big) flare today but dont know if theres a CME attached.
  