[gtranslate]
News

An astrophotographer has captured the clearest ever photo of the sun

The sun can now be seen in great detail and you won’t even go blind looking at it.

Forget about the dark side of the moon, check out these dark spots on the sun!

Photographer Andrew McCarthy layered 150,000 individual pictures of the sun to create the clearest photo of the sun ever seen.

Close-up. Credit- @cosmis_background via Instagram

The image is 30 times bigger than a standard image, adding up to an enormous 300 megapixels.

Looking at the picture close up, you can see swirls and feather-type patterns along the dark sunspots.

The photographer defines the tiny craters as fiery ripples that emanate from the sun, as well as a building space flare.

The dark spots in the photo are apparently inverted by the photographic process and in reality, are super bright, high energy areas of the star.

Capturing the image was incredibly difficult as the process requires a specialist telescope with two filters, in order to prevent a fire and to stop the photographer from going blind.

Andrew McCarthy via Instagram

Andrew, the photographer, also known as @cosmic_background on Instagram said: “It isn’t until I am done processing an image that I actually see what it really looks like, and this was a very special one.

“I always get excited about photographing the sun, it is really interesting because it is always different. 

“While the moon is more of a benchmark of how clear the skies are, the sun is never boring and it was a very good day on the sun that day.”

He’s not wrong, it certainly isn’t boring.