On Sept. 24th in Giza, Egypt, Aymen Ibrahem positioned himself in front of the Pyramid of King Khephren to photograph the sunset. "Every year, just after the autumnal equinox, the sun sets directly behind the east-west aligned Sphinx," he explains. "I knew it would be a great photo-op." His pictures, however, revealed more than he expected.
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© Aymen Ibrahem

"When I took a close look at the images, I found two sunspots," he says. Indeed, sunspots 1108 and 1109 are large enough to see without the amplification of a solar telescope. "Drifting clouds and the dusty air lowered the brightness of the sun enough for me to capture them using nothing more than my camera (a Sony DSC H5)."

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© Aymen Ibrahem
More images: from Frans Zietsman of Fourways, Johannesburg, South Africa; from Steliyan Kimov of Sofia, Bulgaria.

A cautionary note: Never look at the sun through the optical viewfinder of a camera or unfiltered telescope. Even when the sun is dimmed by haze or clouds, sunlight magnified by optics can damage your eyes, resulting in temporary or permanent blindness. Play it safe: Use the camera's LCD screen to preview the scene.