2013 is the Year of the Solar Maximum - What Does That Mean?

From: NASA Science News - 7/20/12

Forecasters say Solar Max is due in the year 2013.  When it arrives, the peak of 11-year sunspot cycle will bring more solar flares, more coronal mass ejections, more geomagnetic storms and more auroras than we have experienced in quite some time.

On the weekend of July 14, 2012, sky watchers around the world got a taste of things to come.

It was mid-Saturday in North America when a coronal mass ejection or "CME" crashed into Earth's magnetic field and triggered the most sustained display of auroras in years.  For more than 36 hours, magnetic storms circled Earth's poles.  Northern Lights spilled across the Canadian border into the United States as far south as California, Colorado, Kansas, and Arkansas.  In the southern hemisphere, skies turned red over Tasmania and New Zealand, while the aurora australis pirouetted around the South Pole.

We will take a look at the sun with our telescope (using indirect viewing) to see how many sunspots there are.  Since it is near solar maximum, we should be very lucky and see a lot!  :)  Learn more about space by clicking below...