Astronomy picture of the day 25-10-2014 - "Sunspots and Solar Eclipse"

Sunspots and Solar Eclipse
Image Credit &Copyright:Michael Bolte (UCSC)

Explanation: A New Moonjoined giant sunspot group AR 2192 to dim the bright solar disk during Thursday'smuch anticipated partial solar eclipse.Visible from much of North America, the Moon's broad silhouette is captured in this extreme telephoto snapshot near eclipse maximum from Santa Cruz, California. About the size of Jupiter, theremarkable AR 2192 itself darkens a noticeable fraction of the Sun, near center and below the curved lunar limb. As the sunspot group slowly rotatesacross the Sun and out of view in the coming days its activity is difficultto forecast. But the timing ofsolar eclipses is easier to predict. The next will be a total solar eclipse onMarch 20, 2015.