Contemplating the Sun
			
		
		
			Image Credit & Copyright:  
Steven Gilbert
		
		
			Have you contemplated your home star recently?
Featured here, a Sun partially eclipsed on the top left by the Moon is also seen eclipsed by 
earthlings contemplating the eclipse below.
The spectacular menagerie of silhouettes was taken in 2012 from the 
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area 
near Page, 
Arizona, 
USA, where park rangers and astronomers expounded on the 
unusual event to interested gatherers.
Also faintly visible on the Sun's disk, 
just to the lower right of the dark Moon's disk, is a group of 
sunspots. 
Although a partial solar eclipse by the Moon is indeed a good chance to contemplate the Sun, a great chance -- and one that is significantly 
more rare -- will occur
next week when the Sun undergoes a partial eclipse by the 
planet Mercury.