Monitor the sun.
Solscape is a “Solar Data Browser” application that grabs real time, up to the minute images of the Sun in multiple light wavelengths. Solscape also monitors current Solar flare activity, Earth view satellite images, Solar geomagnetic activity, and Aurora activity. Solscape gets all of its information via the Internet and compiles it in a single, easy to use application. You can save and archive the data that Solscape collects for later use, and you can tell Solscape to automatically grab the data when you want.
Solscape is “Suggested Donationware”, or Freeware.