See the sun up close at The Sun in Motion
October 15, 2009
BY BILL FERRIS
One of the first lessons I learned as a kid was not to look at the sun. As lessons go, it was a pretty easy one to learn, since ignoring it kinda hurts. Extreme astronomer Gary Palmer wants you to disregard that advice and take a good long look into that burning ball of hellfire via the safety of your computer monitor at his site, The Sun in Motion.
Palmer has worked as a cinematographer for decades, and photographed the visual effects for the film Mission to Mars. At The Sun in Motion, Palmer gives the sun its close up, giving earth-bound learners detailed, large-scale videos of solar flares, spicules, prominences, and other solar phenomena. Palmer’s images are impressive, and a little bit scary when you think that our world literally revolves around a firestorm of heat and explosions.
The Sun in Motion should serve you well if you’re teaching a unit on astronomy in general or the solar system in particular. If you’ve got a digital projector, this site is a great way to put it to use. The sun has never looked so good, and nobody has to go blind to see it.
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