Look directly at the sun through eclipse glasses
The easiest thing to see is going to be sunspots. These are dark patches on the sun’s surface triggered by powerful magnetic activity, and they wax and wane in frequency over an 11-year cycle (The sun’s temper varies on an 11-year cycle, typically taking about 5 1/2 years to move from the quieter period of solar minimum, to the more turbulent solar maximum).
The sun is now at a point in its cycle where sunspot appearances are decreasing — a trend that will continue until 2020 — but those spots that are visible can be bigger than the Earth.
This image of the sun, captured on August 25, 2017, shows sunspots AR2671 and AR2672.
To find a sunspot, you can visit the website Spaceweather.com to view a daily high-resolution image of the sun and pinpoint sunspots on the star’s surface. Then, you can look directly at the sun through eclipse glasses to locate the spots and track their movements over time.
“Watching the sun from day to day, those sunspots are going to move slightly but perceptibly. You can learn to recognize sunspots, watch them move across sun — you can see sun’s rotation with your own eyes pretty easily.
During sunrise and sunset, the shape and color of the sun are more distorted by Earth’s atmosphere. Looking at the sun through eclipse glasses could offer a more detailed view of how the sun is flattened by its proximity to the horizon, and how its colors are affected by scattered light.
Using eclipse glasses to look at the sun when it’s high overhead will provide the clearest view, with less atmospheric distortion. At the same time, the sunlight when the sun is at midday strength will also be more intense.
Be careful not to look for too long. You never want to stare at it, even with eclipse glasses, for more than just a few seconds at a time. High overhead is usually going to be better viewing, but it’ll also be more dangerous viewing — it’s still the sun.
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