This image was taken in September 2011.  The sunspot visible in this image was lobbing high energy “X-class” solar flares in the direction of Earth.  These high energy solar flares carry the potential of damaging satellite or other electrical systems.

One such destructive solar flare occurred in 1859. It was so energetic that telegraph pylons threw off sparks, telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire and some telegraphs continued to send and receive messages despite being disconnected from their power sources. It was so significant it was given a name: The Carrington Event. Ice core data indicates that such an event can be expected to occur about once every 500 years.

This image was taken in late July of 2004 during another cycle of massive sunspot activity.

The sunspots in this photo are more than 10x the size of the earth.

Every so often, enough to be classified as a rare event, the planet Venus will pass in front of the sun.  This event is called a "transit of Venus".

The most recent transit of Venus occurred on June 5, 2012.  This is a short time lapse of part of the transit of Venus on that date, taken with my iPhone through my Skyview Pro telescope with my solar filter in place.

The video is a little shaky because I had an issue with the alignment on my telescope that required a periodic adjustment to keep the sun in view.

These photos were taken in Richland, WA during the total solar eclipse of February 26, 1979.  I used a 35mm camera with a telephoto lens.