warrenb wrote:@Ocker, re: the eclipse image
good spotting!

JohnMatrix wrote:Note that the further out you get from the center, the easier it is to see the stars shining through in the above photo.

JohnMatrix wrote:I tried running stellarium to see if I could postion myself in the eclipse of July 2009. I adjusted the date and positioned for South Africa but I could not get the moon to go over the sun....I might try again later....not sure what I did wrong. But...if anyone can do it, and take a screen shot of the stellarium eclipse up close, then we can compare the position of the brighter stars and planest with what is in the photos above. My guess is some of those bright objects are planets.....it appears Venus and Mercury were in the vicinity of the sun at that time. Does anyone else have stellarium? It's a free program from
http://www.stellarium.org. You can set it up for any geographical location on earth and set the time and date. You can fast forward or go back in time to see where the moon and the sun were on any given date and from any location on earth. You can zoom in and out on planets and stars. There is also a sceen saver mode that will take you on a tour of the comsos. It's a darn cool free program....45mb I think.

Nasa mission to unravel sun’s threat to Earth
A new probe could help scientists predict the solar storms that cause chaos for us

NASA is to embark on one of its most ambitious missions in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the sun.

Following its launch in nine days’ time, the US space agency’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will spend five years in orbit trying to discover the causes of extreme solar activity, such as sun spots and solar winds and flares.

Scientists have long been aware that disturbances on the sun can trigger dangerous x-rays, charged particles and magnetic fields that can disrupt power supplies, communication signals and aircraft navigation systems on Earth.