Black spot on the sun. What is it?

I saw this photo
on a website.on a website.

the page

It is very good and clear weather in Holland and this is a snapshot from a webcam that is pointed at the beach.

Anyone familiar with this phenomenon?

Date and time is visible on the photo.

[edit on 8-5-2008 by Pjotr]

(fixed image link)

[edit on 10-5-2008 by Jbird]

If that photo was real, and it was a solid object between us and the sun, It would cast a massive shadow and be visable in the reflection on the water.

I can't read dutch so I don't know of the circumstances surrounding the picture other than that it is from a webcam. To me, it looks very fake or just to be some kind of digital artifact.

Classic overexposure on the CCD or CMOS sensor of the digital camera that took the picture. The center of the sun was just too bright, causing the sensor to fail in those locations. This results in no data being returned from that area of the sensor, causing a black spot.

Originally posted by nataylor
Classic overexposure on the CCD or CMOS sensor of the digital camera that took the picture. The center of the sun was just too bright, causing the sensor to fail in those locations. This results in no data being returned from that area of the sensor, causing a black spot.

Thank you, I thought it had to be something like that, but lack the specific knowledge. So especially on a very clear day you will see something like this happen, I guess.

reply to post by Pjotr



Whatever it is/was, it still seems to be there.
If you go to the website and click on the second (lower) webcam, you'll see there is a light-producing object above the sea - and it can't be the moon.

I am not sure about the location of the Rederij camera, but the object doesn't appear in any of the other two livecams in Scheveningen.




[edit on 8-5-2008 by Vanitas]

UFO passing the sun. Thats my most humble opinion anyway...

Originally posted by antar
UFO passing the sun. Thats my most humble opinion anyway...

More like USO... unidentified static object.

Originally posted by Vanitas
reply to post by Pjotr

 

Whatever it is/was, it still seems to be there.
If you go to the website and click on the second (lower) webcam, you'll see there is a light-producing object above the sea - and it can't be the moon.

I am not sure about the location of the Rederij camera, but the object doesn't appear in any of the other two livecams in Scheveningen.




[edit on 8-5-2008 by Vanitas]

I do not see anything on the webcam now, but if there was something there while the sun was gone and the other webcams did not show it, it must be a webcamproblem. The first webcam seems to off now, so there could be a problem with it.

reply to post by Pjotr



No, it surely wasn't a technical problem: it was a static light-producing body (like a huge street lamp - only it was above the sea).

The first webcam (on Rederij) is off all the time.
EDIT: And now - 23:43 local time - the second webcam is off too...

And the other two webcams are located elsewhere, so they wouldn't be showing the same angle.
I did save a screen-shot, just in case, but I don't think it's necessary to produce it here.
Not yet, anyway.



[edit on 10-5-2008 by Vanitas]

This is TOTALY fake... The object is closer to us than it is to the sun because the light off of the sun is not shadowed by this object... my guess is a little tool calle PHOTO SHOP in other words EVIL ALIEN WARLORDS THAT WANT TO BLOW UP THE EARTH AND REPLACE US WITH JOLLY RANCHERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by Vanitas
reply to post by Pjotr

 

No, it surely wasn't a technical problem: it was a static light-producing body (like a huge street lamp - only it was above the sea).

The first webcam (on Rederij) is off all the time.
EDIT: And now - 23:43 local time - the second webcam is off too...

And the other two webcams are located elsewhere, so they wouldn't be showing the same angle.
I did save a screen-shot, just in case, but I don't think it's necessary to produce it here.
Not yet, anyway.

[edit on 10-5-2008 by Vanitas]

I am still confused why you are so sure of that. The explanation of nataylor seems correct to me. I did not see any image of the "object" when the sun was gone. Would be great if you could produce it.

It's definitely an overloaded sensor.

Here's a link that shows more examples of it, along with people saying they've had the same problem:

uplink.space.com...

reply to post by nataylor


that liitle black spot on the sun you saw today thats my soul up there its the same old thing as yesterday

Yep. It's overexposure on the sensors.

Photo-sensors can only take so much, before they are unable to comprehend exactly what they are looking at.
The center of the sun is often too bright for the photo-sensors to translate into a color, so they end up with some random variable for color in place of what should have been hot white.

... in this case, it was black.

I hope the photographer was using the LCD to take the picture... and not the viewfinder.
You're eyes also cannot take over-exposure... only, in the case of the human eye... the effects are quite often permanent.

Just wanted to post a couple of sun images taken from my front yard. They are very bright, took them during the afternoon just before the sun started to go down.