The Sun

Surface Features

• Photosphere
  current white-light image
• granulation
• Sunspots; closeup side view
• sunspot cycle: past century, recorded history
• solar spin movie

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  Changing Gears: The Big Picture

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  Stars

  Stars: Physical Properties

  • Apparent brightness
    data on the 125 (apparently) brightest stars
  • Colors
    
    • Orion
    • Southern Ccross optical image, objective prism
    • filters: commonly used wavelength bands; a filter wheel
      
    • multiwavelength comparison: Plieades star cluster
  • Luminosity
  • Distance: parallax
    RECONS project data on the 100 nearest stars
    nearest stars mapped
    searchable database of nearby stars
    zoomable Milky Way Galaxy map
  • Mass: from binary systems

    visual binaries: Mizar orbit

    spectroscopic binaries