It is supposed to be a quiet time on the Sun, as we head toward solar minimum. At the beginning of October, it looked that way, as only a few small sunspots were visible. Then, sunspot group 484 came around the limb of the Sun on 18 October. By 23 October, when 484 was located right on the EarthâSun line, this huge group covered 1.7% of the solar disk. At the far edge of the Sun, another massive sunspot group, 486, was just coming into the field of view. And late on the 26th, a third group, 488, emerged from the interior of the Sun just to the north of 486 (Figure 1).
