November 15th, 2018, 4:20 p.m. local time
Today’s picture is something I would normally not recommend doing, taking a picture directly of the Sun. It has a chance to damage your camera’s optics. But as I should be refreshing my smartphone very soon, I decided that the risk was justified if only this once.
Possibly the worst characteristic of our Sun is that it is so bright. At a magnitude of 26+, it drowns out visibility of everything in the Cosmos, with exceptions of our Moon and sometimes Venus. This is the unfortunate reason why stars and constellations are seasonal. Orion would not be a “Winter” constellation if Rigel and Betelgeuse didn’t have to contend with the brightness of the nearest star to Earth. I’d give up a lot to be able to observe Orion on a Summer afternoon in the middle of July, though I doubt much of the rest of our planet would concur.
