Sunspot Orientation Comparison

• Sunspot Observer tool or real solar images captured at the same UTC time
• two or three observer locations, ideally northern hemisphere, near-equator, and southern hemisphere
• shared UTC clock or timestamp agreement
• safe solar telescope setup with a proper full-aperture solar filter if you are capturing your own images
• screenshots, sketches, or notes for side-by-side comparison

1. Pick one UTC timestamp and keep it fixed for every observer or generated view.
2. Choose at least two locations at different latitudes, and preferably three: north, near-equator, and south.
3. Use the same real sunspot snapshot or the same generated SVG baseline pattern for every location.
4. Place the results side by side without changing the underlying spot pattern or relabeling the disk.
5. Compare how the solar disk and spot pattern rotate from one location to the next.

This visual shows the core geometry the experiment is testing before the real-world observation is made.

• The same major spot groups remain identifiable from panel to panel instead of turning into different patterns.
• What changes is the orientation of the disk and spot layout, not the identity of the pattern itself.
• Northern and southern observers can see the same pattern rotated in noticeably different directions at the same UTC moment.
• A near-equatorial observer usually lands between those two orientations rather than matching either extreme.

Same object, same time, different location leading to different apparent orientation is what you expect when observers stand on different parts of a curved Earth and view the same Sun from different local frames. This is best used as side-by-side supporting evidence together with real timestamps and repeatable comparisons.

• NOAA SWPC: Solar Region Summary: Daily active-region summary that provides the baseline observed sunspot-region positions used for comparison experiments.
• NOAA SWPC: Current SRS Text Feed: Raw text feed showing heliographic active-region positions such as N16E14 or S18W65 at a stated UTC date.
• NOAA SWPC: Solar Synoptic Map: Useful reference for the solar coordinate frame behind orientation and region-position discussions.

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