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| It's the sun, as viewed from a back garden in High Wycombe: (Inset) Amateur solar-photographer Dave Tyler, 71, used a 5-inch refracting telescope equipped with a hydrogen-alpha solar filter |
It's not bad for a picture taken in the back garden.
The sun’s fiery surface is captured in incredible detail from 93million miles away.
The stunning shot was taken by 71-year-old Dave Tyler, a photographer and amateur astronomer.
Like many of us Mr Tyler has the odd pot plant and a shed in his back garden. But, where we might have the compost heap or a vegetable patch, he has installed a 5-inch refracting telescope, equipped with a hydrogen-alpha solar filter.
The filter allows him to safely observe and photograph the high-energy activity on our nearest star.
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A side-no view of a plasma burst - known as a prominence when viewed from the side - captured in High Wycombe |
Mr Tyler said: ‘When you look at the Sun you are looking at a star in high-magnification and detail – it is fascinating. It is about understanding our existence and our place in the solar system.’
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| David Tyler and the equipment he used to take pictures of the sun in High Wycombe |
Mr Tyler, from High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, pieced together thousands of frames using computer software to create the picture.
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| Streaks of superheated plasma rising across the sun's surface - as seen from Wycombe |
What appear to be bursts of flame are known as filaments – when huge masses of superheated plasma jump off the Sun’s surface.
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| The telescope was fitted with a hydrogen alpha filter to capture these incredible shots from 93 million miles away |
They are formed by short-lived magnetic loops hundreds of thousands of miles long that hold dense gas suspended thousands of miles above the 6,000C surface of the Sun.
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| A detailed photograph of the sun with an apparent smile captured using a telescope fitted with a special filter in High Wycombe by amateur astronomer David Tyler |
Mr Tyler photographed the Sun from February 15 to 19, but was unable to follow it any further because of cloudy weather.
The retired engineer, who lives with wife Wendy, a teacher, and son Thomas, 18, has been a keen astronomer for the last 40 years.
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| A streak of superheated plasma across the surface of the sun - captured from a Wycombe back garden |
He built his first telescope when he was 29 and has been an enthusiast ever since.
After taking the pictures, Mr Tyler pieced the images together like a jigsaw puzzle using computer software.
The filament appears etched on the surface of the sun but is actually far away from it, as the sideways photographs clearly show.
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| Dave Tyler uses computer software to piece together thousands of images taken from his back garden in Wycombe to produce this stunning portrait of the sun |
When the filament is seen from the side like this - it is known as a prominence.
Mr Tyler said: 'Filaments occur when magnetic fields have snapped.
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| Amateur solar-photographer Dave Tyler, 71 |
'This in turn causes the local hydrogen plasma to jump off the surface of the sun in a sweeping arc.'
The white 'clouds' around the filament are breaks in the magnetic field.
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| 71 year-old David Tyler build his own observatory to house his five inch telescope |
Dave, a retired CAD mechanical designer, imaged the sun over 5 days.
Nasa has also produced its own version of Dave's images - but relies on an orbiting spacecraft to capture its shots of activity on the sun's surface.
