Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Earth and sky
- Chapter 2 Moon and planet observer's hardware
- Chapter 3 The Solar System framed
- Chapter 4 Stacking up the Solar System
- Chapter 5 Our Moon
- Chapter 6 Mercury and Venus
- Chapter 7 Mars
- Chapter 8 Jupiter
- Chapter 9 Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
- Chapter 10 Small worlds
- Chapter 11 Comets
- Chapter 12 Our daytime star
- Appendix 1 Telescope collimation
- Appendix 2 Field-testing a telescope's optics
- Appendix 3 Polar alignment
- Index
Chapter 12 - Our daytime star
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Earth and sky
- Chapter 2 Moon and planet observer's hardware
- Chapter 3 The Solar System framed
- Chapter 4 Stacking up the Solar System
- Chapter 5 Our Moon
- Chapter 6 Mercury and Venus
- Chapter 7 Mars
- Chapter 8 Jupiter
- Chapter 9 Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
- Chapter 10 Small worlds
- Chapter 11 Comets
- Chapter 12 Our daytime star
- Appendix 1 Telescope collimation
- Appendix 2 Field-testing a telescope's optics
- Appendix 3 Polar alignment
- Index
Summary
A stellar astrophysicist might consider our Sun to be just another star, maybe even rather a humdrum example amongst the couple of hundred thousand million stars that populate our Galaxy. However, to us Solar System observers it is something special. As compared to all the other Solar System bodies, the Sun's characteristics are extreme. Of course the light and heat energy we receive from the Sun are vital to humankind's very existence but those same properties pose real dangers for those of us who choose to study it.
You need to know what you are doing. Get it wrong and you could give yourself a lifetime of impaired sight or even total blindness in at least one eye. Even if you are very experienced and normally work safely, the briefest moment of carelessness is enough to result in irreparable eye damage. You could also ruin some of your expensive equipment. There is also the possibility of burning yourself or starting a fire. You need to proceed with the utmost care, continuously putting safety first. The Sun is truly the monarch of the Solar System and it will severely punish its subjects for even the most fleeting lapses of respect.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Observing the Solar SystemThe Modern Astronomer's Guide, pp. 403 - 456Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012