The sun produces poem-worthy sunsets and as much energy as 1 trillion megaton bombs every second.

The sun is a star, just like the other stars we see at night, and it’s big.

It would hold the earth a million times over and it’s been “burning” for almost 5 billion years.

The sun burns, but not the way wood burns. Instead, it is a gigantic nuclear reactor. The temperature at the surface is about 5,600 Celsius, in the centre a whopping 15 million degrees Celsius. Feeling sweaty?

As you read this, the sun is going through a moderate period, but last month we saw sunspots, cool areas on the sun, up to three times bigger than the Earth. Solar flares were seen shooting away up to 100,000km in length. And, there’s more on the way.

Want to see sunspots for yourself this weekend?

Just punch a hole through a piece of thin cardboard with a large knitting needle, point it at the sun and hold a sheet of white A4 paper below. Sunspots will appear. You’ve just made a pin-hole projector.

Another safe way is to turn your back to the sun and, holding your binoculars outstretched with one hand, aim them at the sun.

See the image projected back onto a screen, wall, or large piece of white paper that you’re holding in your free hand. It should be situated about 30cm from the binocular’s eyepiece.

Move the binoculars around until the sunspots appear sharp, but don’t look at the sun directly. The further you hold the card away from the eyepiece, the larger the image will be. 

Ever wondered what would happen if the sun suddenly disappeared? We’d have no idea it had gone for 8.5 minutes. We’d still see it as an eerie sight, lingering, like a ghost in the sky.

Nobody on earth could predict what was about to happen.  

As soon as the last of the sun’s light reached us eight and a half minutes after the sun itself disappeared, the sun would blink out and night would fall over the entire Earth.

Not until that instant would Earth sail off in a straight line into space.

Sleep well tonight.

David Reneke