Compared to the moon, which has phases and lots of interesting surface details, photographing the sun can seem a little bit samey.
So in the early summer of 2023, when I'd discovered that the sun's activity had increased and there were more sunspots visible on the surface, it was time for a re-shoot.
Photographing the sun in a way that you can make out surface details requires a special sun filter, and I have a home built one that I made for the last time we had a solar eclipse over the UK, so it was a simple matter to slip the filter into the lens hood on my 100-400mm zoom lens and point my camera upwards on it's tripod to capture the 1,000+ images needed to create a smooth time lapse video at full zoom.
Although I couldn't see any sunspots in my camera's viewfinder I had faith that they were there and once the files were downloaded to my computer and viewed full size I could see a good number of sunspots of all shapes and sizes dotted around the sun's face.
And now I'm waiting for the next visible solar eclipse (29th March 2025 in the UK) which is probably the next time I'll get my solar filter out!
Filename - sun timelapse 04
Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2
Lens - 100-400mm zoom @ 400mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 1/100 sec @ f/5.6, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 1/100 sec @ f/5.6, ISO100
Filters - Mylar sun filter.
Shooting interval - 1 seconds
Music - Bach Cello Suite No. 1, G Major, Prelude - Cooper Cannell
Location - Buckley, Wales
Video processing - Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Premiere Pro
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4K and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 39 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2023 unless otherwise stated.