Watch the Sun live

If you don’t have the special filters or expensive telescopes amateur astronomers use to observe and study the Sun, don’t worry – you can still keep an eye on it, even if the sky is cloudy! There are now free apps for smartphones and tablets that let you explore the Sun and monitor its activity. You will find them with a quick search of your app store. If you don’t have a smartphone or device you can do the same thing via the website of NASA’s Solar Dynamics Orbiter, a Sunwatching observatory.

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Go to the SDO website using your web browser: sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov.

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Navigate to the menu bar at the top of the page.

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Select ‘Data’ from the menu, and a drop-down list will appear.

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Select ‘The Sun Now’ from this drop-down menu.

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When ‘The Sun Now’ is highlighted in blue, scroll down the page to view images of the Sun taken at different wavelengths.

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First select the view of the Sun in Hydrogen-alpha by scrolling down to the image labelled ‘AIA 304’. This will allow you to see any prominences on the edge of the Sun. The Sun’s disc will appear a deep-red or deep-orange colour in this wavelength.

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If you see any crimson loops, arches or feathery towers suspended above the limb of the Sun, these are prominences. Zoom in on them to see more detail.

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Look out for any bright spots or squiggles on the Sun’s face. These might be very powerful solar flares.

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To see the Sun in ‘white light’, scroll down to the views labelled ‘HMI Intensitygram’. There are three different ones. All show the view you would have of the Sun if you were projecting its image. These images of the Sun appear gold, yellow and white. The colours don’t really matter. These views will allow you to see any sunspot activity on the Sun at that time. They will look like small, dark spots.

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Zoom in on any sunspots visible so you can see their structure more clearly. Look out for the very dark centre ‘umbra’ region and the lighter, streaked ‘penumbra’ that surrounds it.

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You can also use the website to view videos showing recent solar activity. Click on a link that says ‘MPEG’ and a file will be downloaded to your computer. It will let you watch sunspots coming into view over the limb of the Sun several days earlier and show how they have changed shape and size since then. They will also reveal prominences forming before these solar flares fall away again.