Our closest star, the Sun. At a distance of approximately 93 million miles, it takes 8 minutes for the light from the Sun to reach us here on Earth. The distance to our next nearest star, Proxima Centauri is 4.22 light years. How far away is that? Well, multiplying the distance between Earth and the Sun by 63,000 would equal one light year or about 6 trillion miles. Proxima Centauri is a little over 4 times that distance. So, instead of 8 minutes, the light from Proxima Centauri takes over 4 years to reach Earth.

The image above shows Sunspot 798 which appeared during August 2005 and created some intense geomagnetic storms. This sunspot didn't exist on August 18th. It developed at breakneck speed over August 19th and 20th. In that 24 hour span of time, it grew rapidly from something only barely visible to a size that was 5 times larger than Earth. The fact that this sunspot formed so quickly makes it unstable and prone to explosion. This event led scientists to place 798 on the watch list for possible massive solar flares.

On August 22nd, Sunspot 798 released two M-class solar flares which arrived in the early morning of August 24th and sparked auroral displays visible as far south as Utah and Colorado. Then, it transited to the far side of the sun and things were quiet for a little while.

When it returned to the Earth-facing side on September 7, it began a period in which it released 5 successive X-class solar flares including an X17 monster, the 4th largest ever recorded. Upon reaching Earth, these flares caused more geomagnetic storms spawning auroras and some radio blackouts. On September 11th, the aurora was so strong as to be visible as far south as Arizona. It was cloudy that night in Santa Fe.

Imaged 5:02PM September 13th at prime focus through a Canon 10D digital SLR on my Takahashi FS-102 refractor with a full aperture solar filter. Exposure was 1/1600 at ISO 100.  At the time I imaged this sunspot, the larger of the two dark islands in the center of 798 was estimated to be about as wide as Neptune.

Tres Placitas Observatory, Santa Fe, NM

*******PLEASE DO NOT OBSERVE THE SUN WITHOUT PROPER FILTERS AND CAUTION. IRREVERSIBLE EYE DAMAGE OR BLINDNESS WILL OCCUR*******

I took this image of our Sun on November 21st, 2003 during a period of intense solar activity. The version on the right is an unchanged view of what the Sun appeared to look like though my "white" light solar filer. On the left, I messed with the color balance to give an appearance closer to what most folks expect to see when they think about the Sun.

Sunspots are visible in the image. On the bottom left side are two gigantic sunspots each about the size of Jupiter. The one closest to center is sunspot number 484 and the other is sunspot number 486. On November 4th, sunspot number 486 released the most powerful solar flare ever recorded. These sunspots created auroral displays in the continental US as far south as Florida and Texas; places were such phenomena are very rare.

Imaged afocally with a handheld Fuji Finepix A201 digital camera held to a Meade 20mm Superwide series 4000 Plossl eyepiece on my Takahashi FS-102 with solar filter. 

Tres Placitas Observatory, Santa Fe, NM

*******PLEASE DO NOT OBSERVE THE SUN WITHOUT PROPER FILTERS AND CAUTION. IRREVERSIBLE EYE DAMAGE OR BLINDNESS WILL OCCUR*******

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Last modified: January 1st, 2009