Sweet memories of that 11-day run of sunspots ending on the second day of this month will eventually fade. So far, the number of spotless days is seven -- or perhaps eight by later today -- with the last sunspot seen on October 1. A peek at the latest STEREO images shows two active areas in our Sun's southern hemisphere beyond our direct view, but it is hard to tell if these will emerge as sunspots when they appear over the eastern limb. A rough guess has the first one possibly emerging around October 10, with the second around a week later. Currently, the solar flux forecast shows flux values lower then 70 through October 15, then around 72 during the two-week period from October 16-30. The second spot is seen on the look-ahead image, and is passing into the invisible area, now slightly more than 60 degrees wide in latitude, or about one-sixth of the solar surface.
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