In 1859, English astronomer Richard Carrington was making this sketch of sunspots (left), when he saw two beads of light emerge from the large cluster of spots near the top. Carrington drew the first appearance of the flare as two bean-shaped regions nestled in among the spots (labeled A and B in close-up at right). Five minutes later, the two white spots had drifted to the right and faded considerably (marked C and D).