The first photos of the sun were taken in the first half of the 19th century and they paved the way for many important solar observations in the future.

This “solargraph” (see image, right) shows the path taken by the sun as it travelled across the sky above the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, UK, between 19 December 2007 and 21 June ...

Taken by a Nasa satellite, the image shows the bottom of the sun blacked out. It has an uneven shape due to the different densities of Earth's atmosphere.