Backyard Astronomer Nabs Stupendous Sun Photo
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 - 11:20
in Astronomy & Space
Boiling Sun Alan Friedman Winter doldrums getting you down? Let this amazing photo of the sun brighten your day. The smoky puff on the left is a remnant of a solar flare that erupted from the sunspot below. Astrophotographer Alan Friedman captured this shot at a star party in the Florida Keys last week, using a fairly small amateur telescope. His website has a whole collection of space snapshots and more boiling sun photos like this one. Click through to Bad Astronomy for a nice description of how it was done. See the two sunspots beneath the puff? The little one, to the right, is twice the size of Earth. [Averted Imaginationvia Bad Astronomy]