Community Corner
The Spot That Caused The Storm: Danville Photo Of The Day
Bob Schiff captured the sunspot responsible for the geomagnetic storm that caused the Northern Lights to appear all over the world.
DANVILLE, CA — The black spot in the photo may just look like a bit of grime on your counter, but it's actually a sunspot identified as AR3664, which gave the world the stunning Northern Lights show Friday and Saturday nights. The spot grew to about 123,300 miles wide, more than 15 times the diameter of the Earth. Its magnetic field is also about 2,500 times stronger than that of Earth, which is how we got the solar flares that gave us the lights.
The spot was so huge that Danville resident Bob Schiff was able to view it without just eclipse glasses, though the photo above was taken using a telescope. Thanks for sharing, Bob!
If you have photos of the Northern Lights, we'd love to share them! Email Michael.wittner@patch.com.
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