The Sun
WARNING: Staring at the sun is both hazardous to your health, and poses a danger to your camera sensor. Photographs of the sun should be taken at only very high aperature and speed settings to minimize the amount of light reaching the sensor and reduce the risk of burning it. Obfuscation of the sun during sunset or rise along with occulting objects during broad daylight are optimal to take advantage of. Viewing the sun through the optical view finder can result in permanent eye damage and blindness, and as such should be avoided unless proper filtration is used.
Note: I used neither a solar filter or proper care and eye protection while taking these photos, the methods used by the photographer in this section should not be repeated at home.
« whatever light be, I would suppose it consists of successive rays differing from one another in contingent circumstances, as bigness, force, or vigour, like as the sands on the shore... »Â
- Isaac Newton (English Polymath 1642-1726)
« Observe the light and consider its beauty. Blink your eye and look at it. That which you see was not there at first, and that which was there is there no more. »Â
- Leonardo Da Vinci (Italian Polymath 1452-1519)Â
« Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. »Â
- Martin Luther King Jr. (American Civil Rights Pioneer 1929-1968)Â
Sun Spots
Above is a set of sunspots captured on the morning of February 23, 2023. Taken using a Granit 11H 200mm zoom and a Nikon D5300 without filtration, the overcast cloudcover is the only reason this photograph was possible.
(NASA Image from same day also provided)
Sun Spots
March, 7th 2023
Taken using a Granit 11H 200mm zoom and a Nikon D5300, Red and BW imagery taken using a Hoya R72 (Infra-Red) filter. This blocks out upwards of 15 stops of light. Color Imagery taken under heavy cloudcover since lens is not capable of blocking enough light to avoid overexposure.
Each of these black specks represents a roughly 10,000 degree cooler region on the surface of the Sun, the size of which are on the order of magnitude of the Earth, with some larger specks being larger than multiple Earths. The largest of these sunspots ever seen have gotten up to the size of Jupiter, 143,000 kilometers across. These regions of the surface of the Sun are expressions of intensified magnetic energy that is impinging upon the photons attempting to leave the nuclear furnace of the Sun. Sun spots occur on an 11 year cycle, from a frequency of merely a couple a month to upwards of 100 Sun spots per month.
