{"id":861603,"date":"2026-09-26T17:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T17:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861603\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T17:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T17:56:11","slug":"after-several-attempts-a-perfect-opportunity-eventually-arose-says-award-winning-astrophotographer-on-his-super-detailed-shot-of-suns-surface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861603\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAfter several attempts, a perfect opportunity eventually arose,\u201d says award-winning astrophotographer on his super-detailed shot of Sun\u2019s surface"},"content":{"rendered":"

After previously failing to get the shot, a Portuguese astrophotographer has finally captured a highly detailed close-up of the Sun\u2019s surface \u2013 winning a major astrophotography award.<\/p>\n

Miguel Claro<\/a> was recently named winner of the \u201cOur Sun\u201d category of the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year<\/a> 2026 for the frame, which shows an intricate abstract pattern created by writhing plasma within the Sun\u2019s photosphere \u2013 the outermost layer of the star\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAfter several attempts, a perfect opportunity eventually arose. The excitement that morning was palpable,\u201d he told the competition organizers.<\/p>\n

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Claro had good reason to be excited. Not only did the astrophotographer and science communicator have a new high-powered, dual-band telescope, but he described the conditions that morning as \u201cperfect\u201d for capturing convection cells (areas of rising and falling plasma on the Sun’s surface), along with filigree, or bright spots, found between them.<\/p>\n

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\"Swirling
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(Image credit: Miguel Claro (Portugal))<\/p>\n

Miguel Claro’s gear and settings<\/p>\n

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Soleye 300 Dual-Band telescopeAltair 2-nm G-Band filterBaader SunDancer II TZ-4S telecentric systemSky-Watcher EQ6 Pro mountPlayer One Astronomy Apollo 428M Max Pro Solar Camera1,200 mm | f\/4 | 67 milliseconds from a 22-second videoLocation: Reguengos de Monsaraz, \u00c9vora District, Portugal, July 02 2025<\/p>\n

To get the shot, he recorded several short videos at a high frame rate to freeze what he called \u201cfleeting moments\u201d of atmospheric stability. \u201cWatching the first results of the pre-processed image appear on screen was a pure thrill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Claro pipped retired airline pilot and multi-award-winning Australian astrophotographer, Peter Ward, to first place.<\/p>\n

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For his \u201ccompelling\u201d runner-up scene, Ward used a spectroheliograph \u2013 a device that captures specific wavelengths of light \u2013 to depict calcium filaments and plumes of gas expelled from the Sun\u2019s outer layers in the UV spectrum.<\/p>\n

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\"Layers
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(Image credit: Peter Ward (Australia))<\/p>\n

Peter Ward’s gear and settings<\/p>\n

Astro-Physics\u00a0130GTX and 92-mm Stowaway telescopesCoronado\u00a0SolarMax\u00a0double stacking\u00a090-mm\u00a0etalonMLAstro SHG 700 spectroheliographParamount MEII\u00a0mount, QHYCCD QHY533M and 678M cameras910 mm | f\/7 | multiple 1\/250 to 1\/500-second exposuresLocation: Barden Ridge, New South Wales, Australia, October 11 2025<\/p>\n

British astrophotographer James McBeath was also commended for his frame of the 2025 partial solar eclipse. The photographer told the event organizers that he spent \u201cseveral hours\u201d tracking the eclipse in a local park with his camera, stopping to chat with curious passersby.<\/p>\n

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(Image credit: James McBeath (UK))<\/p>\n

James McBeath’s gear and settings<\/p>\n

The ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year is the world\u2019s largest astrophotography competition, hosted by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, London. This year\u2019s overall winner was Ali Alobaidly (Kuwait) for his depiction of the rarely photographed Shark Nebula<\/a>, snagging him \u00a310,000 (approximately $13,000 \/ AU$19,000) along with the competition accolade.<\/p>\n

Category winners took home \u00a31,500 (approximately $2,000 \/ AU$2,800), with Miguel Claro saying that seeing the \u201cimpressive level of detail\u201d in his image made \u201cevery bit of effort worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s our expert\u2019s pick of the best telescopes for astrophotography and stargazing<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After previously failing to get the shot, a Portuguese astrophotographer has finally captured a highly detailed close-up of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-861603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}