Instructions to Make a Sunspot Flip Book

You can make a Sunspot Flip Book to see the sun rotate and the sunspots change and move around on the solar surface.

• Print Flip Book Page 1 and Flip Book Page 2 in color on heavy white paper (32 lb paper works best). These pictures do not print well in gray-scale.

• Carefully cut out the individual boxes along the dark lines separating the pictures for each date. Be sure to include the white space to the left of each sun image!

• Stack the pictures in time order, with the oldest date on top and the most recent date on the bottom.

• Use the flip book trick:
  • Tap the stack to even up the edges along the end with the sun picture (like straightening a deck of cards).
  • Firmly grasp the stack at the sun-picture end.
  • With your other hand, gently push on the free end of the stack to curve it into a U-shape with the sun-picture on the inside of the curve.
  • Keeping the curve in place, firmly grasp the white-space end of the stack.
  • Then let go of the picture-end, and voila!, you have a slanted stack of paper with the picture-end nicely lined up for flipping.

• Firmly grasp the sun-picture end of the stack, and staple the white-space end about one-half inch from the edge of the paper.

• Now riffle through the stack, and watch the spots move!

Return to the SunSpot Flip Book main page.