A spot of sun

Today, I finally got around to looking at my DSLR photos from our Welsh holiday in February. There weren't many, in truth, as you may recall that the weather was somewhat on the damp side and most of the camera work was consequently done on my phone.

One particular shot was of a very weak Sun, barely making it through the clouds, taken during a walk from our B+B near Chepstow. I must point out that, in hindsight, this was a very stupid thing to do. Sun, camera lens and human eye do not make for good bedfellows without some sort of solar filter. I really should know better.

More grey, Tense? Surely not.

Anyway, there I was reviewing the photos this morning, and thinking to myself, "Yeah, I pretty much centred the star in the shot... that makes a nice change. Shame about the mucky lens, eh?"

There's a speck of dust two thirds of the way up the disc on the centre line and also one on the far left just below centre

Only later in the day did I wonder if perhaps they weren't specks of dust on my lens?

A little internet searching brought up this interesting fact for the day in question, Saturday 16th February 2013.

http://www.tesis.lebedev.ru/en/active_areas.html?m=2&d=16&y=2013

Or looking a little closer...

Sunspots!

Putting aside the fact that I shouldn't have been doing it, I didn't even know that you could do it!