Spot seen with the naked eye?

I've never done any solar observing but the other day, I think Sun. or Mon., I was walking to car in the local W-mart parking lot and thought I saw a spot on the sun. Don't worry, the sun was low and not bright through the thick haze here in Mississippi. It was about 15 min. till 8:00 P.M. whe I saw it. At first glance I thought it was a bird or something in the distance but when I continued to look at it for several minutes I realized it was not moving at all. The best I can remember, it was kind of at the top left side of the sun. Can someone please tell me that nobody slipped something in my diet coke that afternoon? I just baught a Meade 390 and I may be interested in a solar filter. Thank y'all for y'all's time.

Nate.

Nathan,

You were seeing a sunspot, it is AR 652 (the official name, see it at http://www.spaceweather.com/ ). It has been naked eye for a few days. Definately get a solar filter (Baader is an excellent make, find them at http://www.kendrick-ai.com/astro/solarfilters.html . Solar observing can be very rewarding and fun...plus you can use the filter to look at the sun minus the scope, which would be much safer.

Clear skies!!
Paul Maxson
http://glory.gc.maricopa.edu/~pmaxson/index.htm

I saw it last night as the sun was very low in the sky. The sun had a nice orange look to it due to the crap in the air and the spot was very easy to see.

Today I broke out my cheap mylar cardboard filter I got from thousand oaks a few years ago and took a look at the sun. The spot is quite easy to make out with the naked eye. Hopefully when it gets near the limb there will be lots of cool prominances for people to post pictures of.

Matthew
http://www.deerrunobservatory.com/