Sun Spots   ============

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Although the sun is about 93 million miles, it is the source of most of the light, heat, and energy that reaches Earth.  The sun's electromagnetic, particle, and magnetic-field emissions can affect weather, electronic communications, and maybe even how you feel on any given day...

Sun spots, are dark spots on the Sun, associated with solar flares that release large quantities of electromagnetic and other energy.  General sun spot activity has been reported to have periods of increased intensity on an 11 year cycle.

 How long does it take for a sun spot move across the Sun?

    I never thought about the Sun spinning in the sky, I did know the Earth spins on it's axis, you probably would naturally be aware of such a common occurance...

     I recently discovered the Space Environment Center, a government organization, that is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  It is their job to monitor solar activity...

    They have a great web site with lots of pictures and information.  I down loaded a bunch of images of the SUN and decided to test a shareware program that I have been wanting to try to animate the solar images:

GIF Construction Set  from www.mindworkshop.com

    I used solar images from the first three weeks of  January 2003.  The SEC provides various types of images from several locations around the globe...  These pictures originated in Learmonth, Australia which would be prime viewing during summer in the southern hemisphere.  Each picture was about 150K in size and the completed animation (20 frames) condensed into a 863K file.  It may take a few minutes for the entire file to load and begin to spin.  I hope it has loaded for you to see...

Each frame is aproximately 1 day.  If you note a spot starting at the left side and count the number of frames til that location disappears on the other side of the solar image, you will count about (10-12) 12 days for a sunspot to transverse the face of the sun...

So, if you are feeling a little overwhelmed and bombarded with electromagnetic energy, just wait a week or 10 days and maybe the feeling will pass...

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SEC's research scientists study the Sun and the processes by which it affects Earth's space environment. You can likely get today's picture of the Sun and alot more info by clicking the SEC's icon.

Visit SEC website>>>

  << click there!

Note: There is absolutely NO affiliation between myself or SEC.  I just thought you might be interested in their interesting stuff...

I thank SEC for making available images used for this 'Sun Spot' page.

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Solar Update: Sept. 2004:  I am always amazed to think that we are spinning at nearly 1,000 MPH based on Earth's circumference being nearly 24,000 miles at the equator and it taking 24 hours for it's daily rotation.  Sometimes it seems like we're not getting anywhere fast...

I found in an old atlas that the sun took 27 days to revolve.  Based on a circumference of about 2.72 million miles, a spot on the surface of the sun could be moving over 4,000 MPH as it revolves.

Now figure if it takes a year for the Earth to travel around the sun are we really traveling over 30,000 MPH?

I spent my time on this site to practice making GIF file animations. I noticed that the speed-up internet function (from AT&t) needs to be set  so it doesn't mess with pictures to get proper animations...

It was duly reported that SEC does not have the same pictures that I used online anymore?     <<End of Update>>

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The Challenge Unfolds  

So, you are you asking , "What's in the Blue Box?"
 

 Check out your your Extra Sensory Perceptions

The actual contents of the Blue Box will be revealed and all entrants will be informed by e-mail

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You can contact R. Shofstall  directly....

Or send inquiries to:

Nite Owl Productions
Sun Spot Dept   #
5734 Lamar, Mission, KS 66202 USA

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