The Sun — What to See and Why

Abstract

The Sun is often neglected by amateur astronomers except to wish that it set earlier or rose later so that they can get on with “real” astronomy. This is a great mistake since anyone with a small telescope - and you do not need huge instruments to study the Sun - can easily observe the most fascinating phenomena on the one object in the sky that directly influences our everyday lives. Furthermore the Sun is the one star that can easily be observed in great detail. Solar observing does require a small amount of specialised equipment, but the expenditure compared with the cost of the telescope is small. Solar observing also has the merit that it is undertaken on a nice warm sunny day, which has its advantages over working through the icy blasts of a mid-winter night!