Watch out for Mister Sun

During the next couple of weeks you might want to be extra careful when you go out in daylight hours. Something wild is taking place on the sun and it's coming around to face the Earth. Spitting Coronal Mass Ejections, or CMEs, quite out of character with a star that is supposed to be entering its quiet phase.

There are a couple of places where you can check on solar behavior. There's SpaceWeather.com and Spacewatch at Space.com. Both will give you good information on flares, proton streaming and coronal holes, all of which sound rather goofy until you realize that a large X-class flare like the kind that have been exploding "far side" during the last week could really cook your skin, not to mention heat the planet a few miserable extra and unnecessary degrees.

We mention this as a public service to those who give a damn about such things. If you don't care, it's your hide. We're going to buy us a stylish '40s style straw hat and generously apply the highest SP-whatever we can find and reschedule our daily constitutional for the twilight hours.

BTW, the nice photo is courtesy of Space.Com (actually courtesy of the SoHo satellite). On the left is Sunspot 792, moving into firing range.