Awash in a sea o plasmaand anchored i magneticfields, sunspots are planet-sized, dark islands i thesolar photosphere, the bright surface of the Sun.Before the enlightened(!) age of cameras solar observerscreated detaile drawingsof sunspots as they changed an progressed across thevisible solar disk.But contemporary observersalso regularly use this time-honored methodof monitoring sunspots.In this sketch from March 6th 2001 astronomerGunther Groenez has faithfullyrecorded the intriguing shapesand shades of major visible sunspot groupsand labeled them according to their NOA active region number.Solar north is up and east to the right.Groenez' technical equipment includes H and 2H pencil leads for thesunspot umbra (dark) and penumbra (light) areas respectively.Want to draw sunspots too Now'syour chance as two large sunspot groups ar presently making their wayacross the solar disk.Activity associated with these large sunspots may trigge aurorain the coming days.
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