Big Sunspot Group

Perhaps the largest in about 400 years, I've read.

I took this shot of the sun with a special filter, which reduces the amount of light from the sun by a factor of 2 to the 16th power (about 1/65,000th of full sunlight, 16 photographic stops). One could burn out ones camera without cutting down the light like that (been there, did that, decades ago, by accident (camera off, but pointing at the sun))

Converted to black and white to make it easier to see subtle details.

Here’s another image, this time with the brightness of the sun flattened and some sharpening, both done to bring out subtle details.

The brighter areas at various places on the surface (left, about 10 to 11 o’clock; lower right near sunspot group) are called faculae.

Photo taken with Sony 300mm f/2.8 lens, with Baader solar filter and Sony A1 camera.