Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Sunspots

Its the time of year when fires can be seen all over Tanzania, the Selous is no exception, controlled burns are used as a land management tool. With lots of smoke in the air we get beautiful sunrises and sunsets, the smoke can act as a filter enabling one to look directly into the sun without damaging your eyes. This photo I took recently early one morning clearly shows some Sunspots. The two close together at the bottom of the image are called 1263, the one in the middle is called 1261 and the one at the top is 1260. Sunspots are a temporary phenomenon on the photosphere of the Sun, they are caused by intense magnetic activity and can be 800,000km in length!

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