Catch the Sun A complete guide to safe solar observing

Want to see a star up close? Solar expert Stephen W Ramsden reveals the different ways to see our Sun in incredible detail

On Christmas Day 1977, 12-year-old me set up the 4-inch cardboard-tubed reflector that Santa had delivered to my house and screwed the little solar filter on to the supplied eyepiece. I immediately aimed it at the Sun and couldn’t believe how amazingly beautiful it was. The rest is history – I’ve been chasing the Sun through our skies ever since. And right now, there’s never been a better time to get involved with solar observing. Our Sun has hit ‘solar maximum’. This is the time in its 11-year cycle when solar magnetic fields are at maximum disarray causing massive solar flare explosions, giant sunspots, tremendously powerful active regions, erupting prominences, coronal mass ejections and all sorts of ferocious plasma activity. The hobby of solar astronomy has finally reached its apex…

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BBC Sky at Night United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

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