On Sat, 02 May 2009 03:54:34 GMT, "Edmund Fitzgerald"
wrote:

"May 1, 2009"
http://www.spaceweather.com/
"Daily Sun: 01 May 09 Sunspot number: 0"
"Far side of the Sun: This holographic image reveals no large sunspots on
the far side of the sun."
"Planetary K-index
Now: Kp= 1 quiet"

The face of the Sun is without blemish:
http://mdisas.nascom.nasa.gov/gif_he...t_igram_fd.gif

snip...

http://www.spaceweather.com/

" BLANKETY-BLANK SUN: Sunspot 1016 has vanished. Yesterday it rotated
over the western limb of the sun where it can no longer be seen from
Earth. But has it really vanished? According to NASA's STEREO-A
spacecraft, the sunspot still exists. It is circled in this extreme UV
image just beamed back to Earth:"

"STEREO-A is stationed above the western limb of the sun. From that
vantage point, the spacecraft can track sunspots for days after they
leave the range of terrestrial telescopes. Back on Earth, the sunspot
number has dropped to zero, but STEREO-A is still counting.

So is the sun blank--or not? For more than 200 years, astronomers have
counted spots on the Earth-facing side of the sun and called that the
sunspot number. Farside spots couldn't be seen and didn't count.
Continuing this tradition makes sense because it allows us to compare
data across the centuries. So, today, the sun is officially blank even
if STEREO-A knows better."