Keyword: preparation

NASA's images of the sun show so much more detail & texture -- and they can see those not only because they have million dollar equipment and put it into space. These details also are visible to mere mortals -- once you focus onto very narrow bands of light with appropriate filters & technique.

Of all the astronomical phenomena, a TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE surely has to be the scariest of all to ancient people. What horrible powers must be at work when they can take away our sunlight. Of course today's explanation of standing in the moon's shadow is far less threatening (and not as imaginative as a dragon swalling the sun), solar eclipses still remain especially fascinating.

A standardized image format is something most users take for granted -- JPG, GIF, PNG and even TIFF are household names when it comes to (web)-images & editing. If you use a dSLR, you have gotten used to adding a tool or two, to process the Nikon or Canon RAW formats. With the astronomy cameras, the formats & necessary conversions become a real mess -- especially if you use a one-shot color "OSC" camera.