Solar Limb Prominence and Sunspot, 2016 (digital photo)

Creator: Eric Toops An image of the sun, using a Lunt H-alpha filters in a custom-made telescope to bring details of the solar activity out using high magnification. Several photos were stacked to stabilize the image and the 'seeing conditions' (the blurriness of the Earth's atmosphere). Solar limb images often have a 3D appearence, as in this image. "Such is the fantastic level of detail in this image that there's something incredibly immediate about it: it puts the viewer right above the Sun's chromosphere, with its churning convection cells and unpredictably explosive sunspot. A region of savage heat and savage beauty." Chris Bramley Born digital photograph entitled 'Solar Limb Prominence and Sunspot', by Eric Toops, taken on the 19th April 2016 Taken on a Home-made 3200 mm telescope, Point Grey GS3-U3-60SM camera, 150 mm lens, stacked from multiple exposures Runner-up winner of the Our Sun category in Astronomy Photographer 2017