The Sun Spots

I missed the Venus Transit today - that is planet Venus passing in front of the sun Wednesday as it was early in the morning and the clouds had shielded the sun. Those who watched it are the luckiest as in next hundred years this phenomenon is not to occur - so that means I can safely count  myself out from viewing the Venus passing in front to of the sun in my remaining life.

But here I would like to share a unique photo that I took about two years aback on October 20, 2010 at Islamabad, Pakistan. The red disc of the setting sun shows two distinctive hot spots almost in the line of 7 past five diagonally.

The Sun Spots: captured by me and shared on Flickr

In fact shooting the setting sun is my weakness. Besides my house is located in such a way that I can only observe sunsets. The reddish orange disc of the setting sun is very romantic and appealing to me.

The two sun spots on the sun are in fact the hot spots. These are caused by intense magnetic fields emerging from the interior of the sun. These appear to be dark since the background is lighter and are easily visible when the sun is setting and losing its light. Right now, the sunspots are seen rotating clockwise from right to left (which in fact means towards west, as seen from the Earth), as it gradually changes appearance.


I used my Sony DSC H-2 camera on tele-lens mode, though I did not have a tele-lens. But the mode set on VGA provide me the 12 optical zooms fully extended to shoot this rare photograph of my life.