Day 133: Spots on the sun

Sigh - back to work today. And after the photo frenzy of the weekend (where we filled the 16 GB memory card again...) I wasn't feeling particularly inspired to go out and look for more pictures. But for some reason, after I got home I went rifling through our photo-gear storage and pulled out the sun filter we'd bought back in 1999 for the solar eclipse we viewed (partially) in Cornwall. I placed it in its holder, attached it to the camera and went out onto the balcony to get a sun photo.

One small snag: the sun was so faint through the filter that I couldn't take the photos by hand, so back inside I went to get the tripod. Now I was in business! It took a few test shots to get things right, and the photos still came out rather soft, but I was happy with my little experiment. I initially wanted a clear disk picture, but in actual fact I'm very happy with the clouds at the top and bottom. And as for the sunspots, well, they were a real bonus. I knew the sun had some spots visible but I didn't expect them to be as obvious in the photo. Serendipity strikes again.

Sunspots