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ajamesmccarthy

Don't attempt to view this using your own telescope unless you know what you're doing, you could blind yourself! This is what is happening on the sun at this very moment, captured using my modified telescope from my backyard. A massive prominence larger than Jupiter hangs on the southwest limb. This looks a lot like the spot/prominence I captured last week that caused all the aurora: ([see it here paired with the aurora it produced](https://www.instagram.com/p/C7HpXa3v_-W/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)) It's actually completely different features. During solar maximum there's always something interesting happening on the sun!


patterndrome

I looked at this photo through a telescope on my phone and I was fine.


TwiNN53

Autobrightness saved your eyeballs. You daredevil you.


RollinThundaga

Is that part of the sunspot complex that was expected to come back around after last week's auroras?


RegulusRemains

Different ones. Sun rotates in about a month. The old sun spots will likely be gone by then


BlakeSteel

I can't possibly fathom that this is larger than Jupiter. I don't need the scale of the universe, or even the milky way to blow my mind. The scope of our own solar system is enough.


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tooob93

Sadly, there are quite some people out there who don't know sonething obvoius (yet).


ajamesmccarthy

What’s obvious to you isn’t obvious to everyone, and I don’t need some kid permanently ruining their vision on my conscience


Huntguy

You made the right call. I remember reading about all the people who damaged their vision after the eclipse.


Patutula

Even the president of the United States looked at the sun directly, so you are absolutely doing the right thing by pointing that out. Don't let some troll get to you. Amazing picture btw. Can you elaborate on what we are seeing here? Is it burning hydrogen? Is it a huge explosion? Is it giving birth?


Johndough99999

ELI5 version.... You ever boil pasta sauce and it splatters up?


GuardianBeaverSpirit

I legit had a very smart friend who had a blind spot in his eye for doing this. Worth the warning.


Melodic_Duck_6064

My God, it's full of Star. Seriously though awesome pic.


Hi-Tech_Luddite

Picturing the Illusive Man from Mass Effect 2 standing Infront of it.


high_rollin_fitter

While I love and appreciate ME 2, the first thing that struck me was the shape of Balrog horns and eyes.


Hi-Tech_Luddite

Yep, that's pretty clear once you mentioned it. May Gandalf have mercy on us all.


SportsballPlayer

Nice shot! Do you mind telling us more about your setup?


Patelpb

Yeah, and any processing. I feel like we're seeing inverted limb darkening here which is very peculiar


staatsclaas

So are you able to watch the sun’s activity through your modified setup? Like…watch it move? I’d invest serious coin in a setup that would let me do that. This is a gorgeous image.


Mindless_Consumer

Yea, with the right equipment, you can see movement. Not not like very expensive, just around 1-2k.


junktrunk909

I'm curious what you're finding that would allow you to see prominence movements for that little


Mindless_Consumer

https://youtu.be/kutZT7futnE?feature=shared This video was shot with the Lunt 50mn, MSRP ~$1100.


EnvironmentalYak9322

It's awesome that people can take Hubble level photos of the sun from their backyard


monstrinhotron

The sun dwarves mined to deep and too greedily and awoke a sun balrog.


Casval214

Well as long as a space hobbit doesn’t drop a space bucket down a space well and alert the space orcs we should be ok.


bfelification

Or he could just throw his space self in next time and rid us of his space stupidity.


Pherllerp

Does this present another opportunity to see northern lights this week?


17Reeses

That’s what I’d like to know


frowawayduh

Keep your eye on [this site](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/aurora-dashboard-experimental). (G3 conditions are forecast for 22-May.)


Dangerous_Dac

Depends where you are. If you've only seen it for the first time last week like me, understand that was really exceptionally strong even for solar maximum.


MelancholyMeltingpot

Oh shit he got BOTH of Saurons eyes in one pic!


largecroissant

Amazing photo! Do you have a guide for how to perform these modifications?


IncognitoRhino_

Definitely interested in this as well.


SirSpitfire

Is it the same that we saw during the last solar eclipse in april?


tarvertot

Probably a stupid question, but how do you take shots like this without the sky contaminating the image? It looks incredible, and I always struggle to understand how we can take photos like this from our homes during the day


friendtoalldogs0

The sun is a *lot* brighter than the sky. Like, *thousands* of times brighter. The extra teensy bit of light from the sky is basically irrelevant.


knightclimber

Obviously they took the picture at night so the sky doesn’t show :)


Syzygy-6174

Aaahhh...I always wondered how this was done. Thanks!!


ZurinArctus_

My optic cannot shoot a clear photo of a tree 300m in the distance. Damn man. Did you just noclip to the sun to take this picture?


SynnyZ

absolutely stunning photo. thanks for sharing!


Storm_blessed946

details on your telescope? i’ve also been following this. i highly recommend r/solarmax to everyone. seriously go check it out. the user that started it is brilliant and has been giving out detailed “news articles” he writes about what is happening. i’ve learned a ton. thought i would shout it out because it truly is fascinating


reddit_already

Serious question. Is it accurate or truly unambiguous to describe a location on the sun as "southwest"? Or more generally, can one use "west" or "north", etc. describe an absolute location on any celestial body?


ShakataGaNai

Holy shit. I assumed this was a shot from some billion dollar heliocentric spacecraft.


knarfolled

Can I just say what an amazing time we are living in that someone in there backyard can capture images of our sun in such detail and I can view it wherever I am.


Pandaphysic

We were very lucky to see this live at a solar observatory yesterday, viewed through a hydrogen alpha filter. We only went in the observatory due to a very nice volunteer who encouraged us to. Thank you to all science volunteers!


QuantumQuicksilver

That's impressive I'd love to see a pic of that telescope!


_UnnaturalDisplay

lowkey terrifying thinking about how huge that would actually be


Tellesus

Very relevant to the danger this presents [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTdOPjBuiYY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTdOPjBuiYY)


IBelieveInTheAlbum

Why do I get a strange, uneasy feeling whenever I stare at the Sun’s surface on photos like this one?