--- astrodeb@charter.net wrote:

It is right in the center of the sun right now.

I got in a couple of hours of white light viewing at the park up on 11th Ave. Sunspot 756 appeared as the Sun poked in and out of the clouds above the capitol city. At about 2005/05/02 01:00 UTC (2005/05/01 7:00pm MDT Local Time) I made a rough measurement of its maximal diameter (with the tail) and the major axis of the central core using a graduated reticule: 75" - maximum diameter of the core with tail - about 54500 kilometers 46" - major axis of the central core - approx. 33400 kilometers This sunspot is very impressive in size and is reminiscent of a barred galaxy in appearance. (It's definitely worth taking a look at if you have missed it.) The central core is almost rectangular and appears to consist of two side by side overlapping spots. It The extended "tail", which includes a trail of smaller spots, wraps about 200° around the central core. The filaments of the foreground dark clouds provided a great dramatic effect as they drifted across the Sun's disk in the eyepiece. The dark siloheutte of the ocassional seagull also put in an appearance in the eyepiece. One flew in tight circles next to spot 756. Is the emergence of this sunspot somehow related to the large coronal hole seen the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) 284 A angstrom images? << http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/ >> << http://spaceweather.com/ >> - Canopus56 (Kurt) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com