My girlfriend and I happened to be in the vicinity of Remscheid this sunday. Thanks to google, I found something interesting to explore: the local astronomical observatory.
On Sunday afternoons when the weather is nice they offer “sun observations”, plus you can walk around on the outside of the dome and take in the view.
Looking directly at the sun and being able to see solar prominences (flares / storms on the surface of the sun) was surprisingly impressive, really. Escpecially considering that this was a rather small and simple telescope. Of course I couldn’t take fotos through the telescope, but it looked a bit like this, just in a brighter red and much more detailed.
And here are the photos I could and did take:
