The Body of the Sun

Tan Poster for Mira Hughes Body of the Sun Exhibit.

Currently on display in the CCA Student Gallery.

Sun Portraits
Cyanotype on Paper

Over the span of a week, I tracked the Sun using a Sunspotter telescope and documented the sunspots as they grew and traveled with the Sun, and then translated this data into simplified wire line drawings. Arranged to show the passage of time, these cyanotypes show the development of a
solar storm. Sunspots are cooler (but still extremely hot) areas of the Sun that are visibly darker.

Sun Bodies
Charcoal on Paper

Sunspots are often found grouped in oppositely-charged pairs, and are visual evidence of convection within the layers of the Sun. While examining images of sunspot AR3576 – a massive sunspot cluster multiple times larger than the Earth that I had been tracking for the Sun Portraits project – I became interested in the movement of the solar granulation and the interactions between sunspots.

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