This morning (13 Dec 2006) on my way to work I was able to see a remarkable view of the Sun and the sun spot. I called my sister (who has a spiffy new camera) who was also on her way to work and got her to take this photo. She hoped out of the car, pointed the camera and clicked.

There is a massive bushfire raging in the north east of Victoria, Australia. We live in Melbourne and the city is covered in smoke. While it's bad for asthma sufferers, it made for some great viewing this morning. The sun spot was a particular treat.

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Hi Josh nice take on our Sun, tell your sister she did good. My friend norm I think lives not far from you. last night he sent me some photo info on the wild fires. They look bad. I hate it for you all, I hope things get better soon. take care Paul.

Isn't there a danger of burning the CCd when photographing the sun? (when not obscured by smoke)

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

I don't see a sunspot on the image!

PS: O, wait, is it just to the left and up from the center of the Sun?

Terrific shot. Good timing!

Yes ... but the smoke was thick enough to act as a natural sun filter.

Yep. That's not just some crumb on your screen there .. that faint little dot is a sun spot. It's pretty faint in the photo but was quite obvious when just looking at the sun in the sky. I might try mucking around with the levels in Photoshop a little later and see if i can bring it out a little more.

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Something tells me you didn't use the automatic quote function, Josh

Well, 2 things even! The second one is the addition of the link to the orginal post in the second quote.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

That's it.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Sorry Nicolas, I hit the quote button for hhEb09'1 and typed you in ... ever thought of putting an "h" in your name? :P

I've tried to play around with the pics but this is as good as i could get it with my ultra-limited photoshop skills.

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he can have one of mine

Cool...a pink Sun! It's definitely easier to see the sunspot on my LCD screen at home compared to the brand new Dell monitor I have at work.

Great catch!

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Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.

yeah, and while I must say I like the sensual, "womaniser" ring of "Nicolash", I will stick to my old name

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

As discussed in Shevill Mather's "smoky full moon" thread, I was looking at some pictures of the smoke and fires near Melbourne. One can see how Josh got his picture. There's one pic at this link where it is literally orange outside:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/indepth/f...s/s1808155.htm

I remember once fires in Mexico affected our air here in Houston, Texas, and it wasn't pleasant...a lot of hacking coughs going on.

BTW, Spaceweather's aurora gallery:
http://spaceweather.com/aurora/galle...ec06_page2.htm

I've never seen skies like that. Must definitely do that before I expire.

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Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.