Star

The Sun

Also known as SOL · YOR · SURYA · SHAMS

Our local star — the engine of the Solar System.

A G-type main-sequence star (G2V) that contains 99.86% of the Solar System's mass. Fuses 600 million tonnes of hydrogen into helium every second.

Structure

Core → radiative zone → convective zone → photosphere (visible surface) → chromosphere → corona.

Activity

Follows an 11-year cycle of sunspots, flares, and coronal mass ejections that drive space weather and auroras.

Safety

NEVER look at the Sun directly or through any optical device without a certified solar filter — permanent blindness can result.

Observing from Chitral

Never look at the Sun without a certified solar filter — no exceptions, and no filters that screw into an eyepiece. With a full-aperture white-light filter, sunspot groups are visible on most days near solar maximum. Chitral's dry mountain air gives excellent daytime seeing in the first two hours after sunrise, before the valley thermals build.

History & culture

Chinese records of naked-eye sunspots go back to 800 BCE, and the 1919 total solar eclipse expedition measured starlight bending around the Sun's limb — the first observational confirmation of general relativity.