How Beginners Can Safely Observe Solar Prominences, Filaments & Flares
Two things set the Sun apart from all other stars in the Universe: it does not belong to any constellation, and it is close enough to Earth to be observed and studied in exquisite detail with nothing more than modest amateur equipment, which equipment includes smart phones. Consider the image below; it was made from a video taken with a web cam attached to a small, dedicated solar telescope as opposed to a smart phone, and it shows almost everything that can occur on the Sun simultaneously- in a single image. The white plumes on the solar limb are solar flares silhouetted against the dark background, the black spots are…
Top Mistakes Beginning Astronomers Make
Amateur astronomy is not for everybody, just like golf or football is not for everybody, but if you are sure that you want to take up the hobby of gazing at the Universe (or at least some of it) in your free time, you need to get the basics right. Getting it wrong, like so many other beginner amateurs have done, means that your expensive new equipment will almost certainly end up gathering dust in your garage – never to see starlight again. So how does a beginning amateur astronomer get the basics right? Quite easily in fact, and the best part is that you don’t have to spend money…
