The sun, making up 99.8% of all of the mass in our solar system, is a notable object for learning about astronomy. Its cyclical activity governor's many characteristics of our solar system, and is something that is relatively easy for amateur observers to track.

The sun's activity falls into ~11 year cycles, which stem from the changing of the magnetic field of the sun. At solar maximum, the poles of the sun switch before activity declines again to solar minimum.

The solar cycle is most notably marked by the appearance of sunspots, dark spots on the surface of the sun that signal activity in that area, and are a means by which the magnetic field changes. As the cycle begins to grow from solar minimum, where there may be none present for an extended period of time, sunspots will begin to appear near the poles of the sun, working down towards the equator as activity grows stronger. Several sunspots are visible in the image on the left, which was taken with a Celestron 130GT here on campus.

Given the ease of viewing them, (semi-)consistent viewing and documenting of sunspots is a great way to track an astronomical process on your own.