The contrast between the brightest parts of the chromosphere and the faint outer corona is more than 5 powers of ten. No media, may it be analogue or digital is capable of capturing such an extreme contrast. Therefore several pictures taken at various exposure times must be stacked in order to show the bright prominences (lower left) and the outer corona filaments in the very same picture.

At the end of the solar activity cycle #25, the corona appeared to be indecisive whether it wanted to be a minimum or maximum corona. Minimum coronae show brighter and longer rays along the solar equator plaine and fainter ones at the poles. A typical maximum corona has a more radial symmetry just like the 1999 eclipse. In this case, the south pole shows a very obvious "dent", but the rest of the ring around the sun is rather symmetric. Be aware that the sun's polar axis is tilted 15 degrees to the left.

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Please keep in mind that astrophotography is a hobby that demands a lot of money and even more time and effort. So I have to state that the copyrights for all of these pictures are reserved. In case you'd like to use our pictures for more that just watching them, please send me an e-mail-message and ask for permission. Thank you.