Sunspots and stormy solar weather

Last week there was a lot of solar activity. As in several big sunspots and several enormous solar flares - including the biggest in 12 years, I read.

It was expected to cause all kinds of interesting effects on earth, including problems with GPS, communications and other electrical equipment. I'm not sure how much of this actually happened - the news bulletins have been all about major earthly weather events, after all.

Solar flares come out of sunspots - cooler areas of the Sun's surface which are the centres of solar storms. The charged particles emitted take typically 24 hours to reach us, and then they interfere with our atmosphere to cause their mischief.

I decided I'd better see for myself what was going on. Don't try this at home, children, unless you have a proper heavy duty solar filter. I just attached my 300mm lens to my SLR camera, pointed it at the sun with said solar filter held firmly in front of the lens, and clicked away on 'auto' settings. Here's the result.

(Vital health warning: NEVER look directly at the sun, especially with telescopes, cameras or other magnifying devices, unless you have appropriate protective equipment like my solar filter, and know how to use it.)