[ad_1]
A speckled sun shines over New York City in a stunning Sky Watcher photo.
Amateur astronomer Alexander Krivenyshev, president of WorldTimeZone.com, photographed the sun over the Big Apple on Saturday morning (November 28). A close-up image he captured clearly shows a large sunspot known as AR2786 and its smaller cousin, AR2785.
Krivenyshev took the photos using a Canon EOS7D camera, with a solar filter attached for the close-up. Caution: Do not attempt to take such photos unless you also have a sun filter. Looking directly the sun, with the naked eye or with instruments such as cameras or telescopes, can cause serious and permanent eye damage, including blindness.
Related: How to safely observe the sun (infographic)
AR2786 and AR2785 shot in sight shortly before Thanksgiving. AR2786 is several times larger than the Earth.
Sunspots are temporary dark spots that are significantly cooler than the rest of the solar surface – around 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit (3,600 degrees Celsius), compared to 10,000 degrees F (5,500 C).
Sunspots occur where solar magnetic fields are particularly strong, and they serve as launch pads for eruptions and superhot plasma eruptions known as coronal mass ejections. For centuries, scientists have counted sunspots as a way to measure solar activity.
This activity increases and decreases over an 11-year cycle. The last one, solar cycle 25, started in December 2019 and should be quite calm, as was solar cycle 24. But the sun is playing now, at least a little: Sunday (November 29), our star fired his most powerful torch in more than three years.
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book on the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
[ad_2]
Source link