Tour of the Solar System

The Sun

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The heart of our solar system. The Sun is the direct source of life sustaining heat and light for the Earth. It's distance from the Earth is one A.U. (Astronomical Unit). One (1) A.U. is the distance from the Earth to the Sun or 150 million kilometers (93 million miles).

The Sun has a diameter of approximately 1,390,000 kilometers (864,000 miles), and a mass about 330,000 times that of Earth.

The word "Sun" is derived from the Spanish "sun" & from the   Latin "sol".

Click thumbnail for large hi resolution image.  2042x1361 - 177k

Above image represents 1st light with our new Canon digital Rebel 6.3MP camera.

Energy is expelled from the surface of the sun shooting thousand of miles high, only to be pulled back down in massive ARCS by the sun's gravity.

A rare "bridge of white" separates this sunspot like two halves of a heart.

well...you get the idea...

A rare dual transit of Venus and a 747 Jumbo Jet...6/08/04

Sun had just recently released massive solar flare...sorry for the trees :(  ...ETX90 DS Hybrid Sony Camcorder...Oct 31st 2003

High sunspot activity...ETX90 DS Hybrid Sony Camcorder... Oct 31st 2003

Solar Mosaic SAC7a, ETX90, DS/Autostar Homemade Hybrid Portable Pier, Baader Solar filter, Processed in FitsX (f/6.9). 02/11/03

Short video showing the rolling, boiling surface (prominences) of the sun. Also notice the nice "double" sun spot at top center, and the sun spot at the 4 o'clock position. Astrovideo, ETX90 (f/7) Hybrid DS-Autostar Mount, SAC7. 12/27/02

 More to come...