Tags archives: sun

 

Partial Solar Eclipse with Airplane

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Image Credit & Copyright: Phillip Calais

Image Credit & Copyright: Phillip Calais

It was just eight minutes after sunrise, last week, and already there were four things in front of the Sun. The largest and most notable was Earth’s Moon, obscuring a big chunk of the Sun’s lower limb as it moved across the solar disk, as viewed from Fremantle, Australia. This was expected as the image was taken during a partial solar eclipse — an eclipse that left sunlight streaming around all sides of the Moon from some locations.

 

Hypnotic solar explosions in 4k

 
 

To the naked eye, our sun is an unremarkable ball of heat and light. Under the eye of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or S.D.O, the Sun’s activity is revealed under various spectrums of light. See incredibly detailed coronal mass ejections, bursts, and solar flares. Let the immense power of the sun immerse and mesmerize you [...]

 

Sunset at Dog Rocks

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Photographer: Phil Thomson; Phil's Web site

Photographer: Phil Thomson; Phil's Web site

The glorious twilight sky above was captured at Dog Rocks, Batesford, near Geelong, Australia on January 18, 2013. I happened to be the only one here this evening and was treated to these gold and red hues just after the Sun dipped below the horizon. Mid-level clouds were positioned just right to reflect the reddened sunlight. Without clouds or aerosols of some kind, sunsets and sunrises are generally lackluster. Notice also the set of faintcrepuscular rays just to the right of the silhouetted juniper in the foreground.

 

Three years of Sun in three minutes

 
 

In the three years since it first provided images of the sun in the spring of 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has had virtually unbroken coverage of the sun’s rise toward solar maximum, the peak of solar activity in its regular 11-year cycle. This video shows those three years of the sun at a pace of two images per day.

 

A Year on the Sun

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Image Credit: NASA, Solar Dynamics Observatory

Image Credit: NASA, Solar Dynamics Observatory

Our solar system’s miasma of incandescent plasma, the Sun may look a little scary here. The picture is a composite of 25 images recorded in extreme ultraviolet light by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory between April 16, 2012 and April 15, 2013. The particular wavelength of light, 171 angstroms, shows emission from highly ionized iron atoms in the solar corona at a characteristic temperatures of about 600,000 kelvins (about 1 million degrees F). Girdling both sides of the equator during approach to maximum in the 11-year solar cycle, the solar active regions are laced with bright loops and arcs along magnetic field lines. Of course, a more familiar visible light view would show the bright active regions as groups of dark sunspots.

 

 

Annular solar eclipse at Horseshoe Bend

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Photographer: Clinton Melander; Clint's Web site

Photographer: Clinton Melander; Clint's Web site

The image above captures the remarkable experience of viewing the annular solar eclipse of May 20, 2012 at Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River in Northern Arizona. Horseshoe Bend is a looping meander entrenched into the bedrock. Like all such meanders, this one formed when the underlying land was uplifted by tectonic forces. The uplifting acted to bring new life to the Colorado River, providing added power to cut through the Jurassic sandstone. An additional bit of fun in this image is the hundreds of photographers all taking in both the eclipse and the extraordinary view. They can be seen (center right and left) lining the canyon rim, with a 1,000 ft (305 m) drop to the Colorado River below.

 

 

Sunrise, Moonrise

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Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Pölzl

Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Pölzl

For many Europeans, the Sun and New Moon rose together on January 4 in a partial solar eclipse. Arriving close on the heels of the new year, it was the first of a series of four(!) partial solareclipses due in 2011. This composite image documents the graceful celestial event in colorful morning skies over Graz, Austria. Beginning before sunrise, frames [...]