There's something wrong with the sun...

[pressld2]

Not wishing to be alarmist or anything but our local star is definitely behaving a bit odd.

I was taking pictures of reeds backlit by the setting sun yesterday and when it got low enough that I could look at it easily I started to include the sun in the frame. I've done this before at both dawn and sunset without any problems but yesterday I got some very weird effects...



Has anyone seen this kind of effect before and does anyone know what causes it?

It could just be that the sun was still a bit too bright because after a short while, as it sank a little lower, the effect stopped happening. But then I started to see a different distortion instead - dents in the sun's disc...



I'm pretty sure that these were caused by out of focus reeds way in the background as they were always on the bottom half of the sun.

Fortunately I did get one or two shots where the sun looks normal so I don't think it's ready to go nova just yet!

Dave P.

[sleipnerofasgard]

seems okay to me

[Blackbrook Eye]

Dont knock it, any kind of sun is welcome at this time of the year.

[HowlinWolf]

It looks like severe (optical) coma to me. It's an aberration which causes off-axis light rays to produce comet-like blur away from the optical axis. There, I've said it.

HW

[matt_xyz]

Originally Posted by HowlinWolf

It looks like severe (optical) coma to me. It's an aberration which causes off-axis light rays to produce comet-like blur away from the optical axis. There, I've said it.

HW

that's what I was going to say

[Brocker]

It could possibly be the refraction anomaly associated with aberesque light matter around a poor focus abarition which commonly distorts vertically and not horizontally. . . . . I need to lie down and quick

[colincurry]

Do you remember when management buzzwords used to be the rage (perhaps they still are, but, hey, my only manager is my guv'nor and she don't take no messing). There was a list that you could permutate from. One of mine (that was never challenged) was ' the configuration of the parameters of the periphery'

I think that is what happened here - problems with the configuration......

Interesting effects, anyway.

Colin

[pressld2]

Originally Posted by HowlinWolf

It looks like severe (optical) coma to me. It's an aberration which causes off-axis light rays to produce comet-like blur away from the optical axis. There, I've said it.

HW

Thanks Chester, that looks to be the most likely answer. I've not heard of optical coma before but if I've understood it correctly it wasn't that the sun was too bright but that I wasn't pointing directly at it. I was pointing at the reeds in the foreground so the sun's rays were striking my lens at an angle causing the coma. As the sun dropped to the same level as the reeds its rays struck the lens straight on and the effect disappeared. Have I got that right?

Dave P.

[HowlinWolf]

Dave P,

I think the easiest explanation is to Google the topic (Wikipedia has an article on the subject). To fully explain, I'd only be quoting from such a source, so it's probably best for you to see it for yourself (with diagrams).

Oh, you're the first to make the connection with my pseudonym. 10 out of 10!

Chester

[pressld2]

Originally Posted by HowlinWolf

Wikipedia has an article on the subject

Thanks, that's a very interesting article if a bit technical in places.

I'm surprised I haven't seen the effect before as I do take the odd sunset or sunrise pic and usually have the sun off-centre (rule of thirds and all that). It's got me wondering if I could use the effect creatively as I actually quite like the middle one - looks like a candle flame.

Originally Posted by HowlinWolf

Oh, you're the first to make the connection with my pseudonym. 10 out of 10!

LOL! Big blues fan, me. I know who really wrote Led Zepellin's The Lemon Song!

Dave P.