The National Geographic are reporting that parts of the sun are hotter due to sound waves produced by magnetic fields.

The temperature at the sun’s surface layer, or photosphere, is about 10,000°F (6,000°C)—much cooler than its 27,000,000°F (15,000,000°C) interior.
But in the chromosphere, the region just above the photosphere, the heat spikes again to about 20,000°F (11,000°C)…

Now McIntosh and colleagues’ studies show that magnetic fields send sound waves from the sun’s interior shooting upward, creating fountains of hot gas that shape and power the chromosphere.

I bought another new lense the other day and have been snapping away. This will probably be my last purchase for a little while as it wasn’t cheap!

You can see a full size version of the photo here.
I’m impressed with the lense so far, although it’s weighty at 1.4kgs! I’m sure more photos will be posted soon.

I bought a new digital SLR a few days back and have been trying it out today.
Instead of the APS-C sized sensor of the Canon 300D that I had, I now have a full frame Canon 5D.

With a new camera comes the new button layouts and its been taking a while to get used to them all. It’s not just the locations of buttons, it’s also the different combinations to press to adjust settings whilst shooting which need to be re learnt.

The image in this post is one I took down the garden. I thought the leaf looked pretty prominent even though it’s been half eaten! A large version of the image can be seen by clicking the smaller thumbnail.

We made a trip to Dartmoor this weekend, for three days of walking and taking the place in.
For me, it was just nice to get out of London for a while and take in a bit of country life and nature.

We did the camping thing for the first night and then stayed in somebodies house on the second. Both nights were fantastic, a little cold, but you could see stars for miles.
The weather stayed good for the time we were there, with us walking through the clouds only once! It’s not quite the same as walking through the clouds on the Dolomites, but I’ll have to make do for the time being!

I plan to put a few photos online at some point this week. I didn’t have my SLR camera with me, but the compact seems to have taken a few nice shots.