Discovering the Sun

June 10, 2009 5:17 PM

Sungazer — discover the awesome beauty of the Sun. See images of Earth sized sunspots, towering prominences, and rivers of hot gas. Then, explore the cameras, telescopes, and accessories used in solar astro photography. (previously)
posted by netbros (9 comments total)

Wow, that's hot.

(Sorry)
posted by monospace at 6:06 PM on June 10, 2009

Self-linking is okay in the comments as long as it is relevant, right?
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 6:16 PM on June 10, 2009

Several years ago when I was more into astronomy I always used to joke with my wife that I ran down and bought a few hydrogen alpha filters. You can drop serious money on that kind of stuff.
posted by crapmatic at 6:20 PM on June 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Just do not look directly at the sun, because it can actually harm your eyes, up to and including blindness. Carry on enjoying this fine post.
posted by theora55 at 7:08 PM on June 10, 2009

But mama, that's where the fun is!
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:48 PM on June 10, 2009

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas,
    a gigantic nuclear furnace.
Where hydrogen is built into helium
    at a temperature of millions of degrees.

The sun is A GIGANTIC APOCALYPTIC NUCLEAR FIREBALL OF SUCH UNIMAGINABLE BULK OF INCREDIBLE POWER THAT MICHAEL BAY COULD ONLY DREAM ABOUT IT, SO FIERCE IN ITS WRATH THAT JUST LOOKING AT IT COULD BLIND YOU AND WHICH ONE DAY IN THE FUTURE WILL EXPAND INTO AN ANGRY ORB OF EVEN VASTER EXTENT WHICH WILL SWALLOW UP THE EARTH AND EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN, CONVERTING IT FIRST INTO CINDERS THEN GAS AS IT IS ABSORBED INTO ITS HORRIBLE SURFACE, WIPING CLEAN OF THE UNIVERSE THE NOTION THAT THERE HAD EVER BEEN SUCH A PETTY THING AS MAN.
posted by JHarris at 11:20 PM on June 10, 2009

This is cool, thanks! I was happy to note that the site had an anagraph of the sun, viewable with your everyday red-cyan 3-D glasses. I'm looking forward to taking a look at it in the morning at work, where we have a secret stash of twenty 3-D glasses (leftovers from a former colleague's project on stereopsis).

On a related note, a cool thing to check out is STEREO, which is NASA's project on capturing the sun's activities in 3-D:

The two nearly identical observatories - one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind - will trace the flow of energy and matter from the Sun to Earth. They will reveal the 3D structure of coronal mass ejections; violent eruptions of matter from the sun that can disrupt satellites and power grids, and help us understand why they happen. (from main page)

STEREO capabilities:
1) First stereo viewing of Sun from out-of-Earth-orbit vantage points.
2) First imaging and tracking of space weather disturbances from Sun to Earth.
3) First continuous determination of interplanetary shock positions by radio triangulation.
4) First simultaneous imaging of solar activity with in-situ measurement of energetic particles at 1 AU. (from here)

Some 3-D captures from STEREO can be found here. While most of these require 3-D glasses to view, you should be able to see these ones in 3-D simply by crossing your eyes.
posted by tickingclock at 12:23 AM on June 11, 2009 [1 favorite]

"Poor boy spent too long observing the sun through a telescope. His squint was permanent."
posted by kcds at 4:42 AM on June 11, 2009

Augh, it's anaglyph, not anagraph, like I wrote last night. What's that, commenting late at night without sleeping?
posted by tickingclock at 11:04 AM on June 11, 2009