A sensational blood-red image of the sun, made up from 100,000 pictures taken from Earth shows the star in intricate detail, including a building solar flare.
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy said the image of the sun was one of the 'clearest' photos he has ever taken of our host star, coming to 230 megapixels.
McCarthy has been photographing the sun and the moon for three years - but this month, he took on his 'most unique challenge' yet.
Today's card. The Anonymous author of Meditations on the Tarot wrote of The Sun, "here it is not a matter of finding occult things, but rather of seeing ordinary & simple things in the light of day of the sun & with the look of a child." And this they call "revelatory naivety." pic.twitter.com/HaXK1uzJi8
— Jessica Dore (@thejessicadore) April 25, 2021
Using a new, ultra-sharp solar telescope, the photographer from California layered thousands of images over each other to capture the sun in breathtaking detail.
The huge, 230 megapixel image - a standard camera is about 10 megapixels - shows the round sun glowing a deep, dramatic red highlighted against a dark sky.
The combined photo is so clear that even the plasma right at the outer edge of the sun can be seen - dancing around in the atmosphere like a flame.
He had to take almost 100,000 individual photos of the sun - at a rate of about 100 photos per second to capture the amazing detail.
He said: 'I was very pleased with the final result.'
'I wasn't sure if the image would turn out so well, as stitching together a large photo of the sun comes with unique challenges that I've never dealt with before.'
'But I will definitely be producing more of these.'
He added: 'To capture the sun in more detail than I've ever attempted, I assembled a new solar telescope that gave me 4000mm of focal length, about 10x the magnification of my previous telescope.
'I used a technique called 'lucky imaging', so the best frames from a particular session are stacked together to help reduce the effects of the atmosphere.
Yesterday I took a massive 140 megapixel image of the sun. But there is something uniquely special about this image, that made it one of my most difficult shots ever. So, what is it? #astrophotography #space #opteam pic.twitter.com/bvOfYjf1Fb
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) April 24, 2021
'These photos were captured just before noon, when the sun was high in the sky but while the atmosphere was still relatively calm.
'By capturing close up details of the surface with this rig, timed when the atmosphere was very still, I was able to produce sharp details on its surface.
'These objects around the edge of the Sun are known as a 'prominence' - a mass of plasma suspended in the solar atmosphere by the sun's powerful magnetic field.
'These happen quite frequently, and last a long time.'
To see more of Andrew's amazing astrophotography, visit his Instagram page, or go to his Patreon.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
