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The Sun Channel

Because staring at the sun directly is harmful
  (+1)
(+1)
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See the sun live as flares appear. Watch as the camera changes to the different spectrums of light. Watch the magnetosphere and corona in all its radiant beauty and not miss an eclipse. Very educational.
sartep, Jun 11 2004

transit of venus http://www.venus-transit.de/
apparently it heralds a period of girl-power [po, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

SOHO real time movies. http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
Click on the sun now icon then scroll to the bottom for the clips. [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Seasonal Affective Disorder http://www.outsidein.co.uk/sadinfo.htm
Would be a good cure for this. [Worldgineer, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

[po]'s friend http://www.tubby.jp...etubbiesHP43212.jpg
[Worldgineer, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Astronomy Picture of the Day http://antwrp.gsfc..../apod/astropix.html
Really cool site... Check out the archives... [zigness, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

[link]






       A whole channel of just sun? Great on eclipses but a trifle dull normally, no?
harderthanjesus, Jun 11 2004
  

       Don't forget solar flares and the magnetosphere.
sartep, Jun 11 2004
  

       I suppose so. It'd be much better that watching adverts, that's for sure. Bun for an escape from adverts.
harderthanjesus, Jun 11 2004
  

       This idea gives me a warm glow (+).
neilp, Jun 11 2004
  

       thank god! I thought from the title that this was going to be a channel devoted to page 3 girls and right wing politics. But its not, its much more bun worthy.
etherman, Jun 11 2004
  

       etherman i had that same vision, besides that one is semi existant in Men and Motors.
engineer1, Jun 11 2004
  

       can we play music over the top <sartep>. i.e "I am the God of Hell Fire and I bring you!! Fire!! Dun -du- dun- du"   

       just me then... I'll get my coat.
etherman, Jun 11 2004
  

       I'm fairly convinced there are web cams pointing at the sun, but i'm having a time finding one (keep finding mentions of them, but no links).
I will find one though!
MikeOliver, Jun 11 2004
  

       This is a nice idea. When I was a little girl I always wished the sun wasn't too harmful to my eyes so I could stare right at it and get to see how it burns.   

       But (Sorry to bring the bad news guys) but I don't think this channel could exist. If it's meant to be an escape from adverts, as harderthanjesus notes, I don't see why anybody would invest the channel to be on the air. Plus, nobody would stay tuned more than 5 minutes, I think.   

       A better option could be making a 3-5 minute long clip of the sun's best features of the day, to be transmited on the news every night.
Pericles, Jun 11 2004
  

       "Honey, it's a bit dark in here. Can you turn on the sun channel?"
Worldgineer, Jun 11 2004
  

       "Wouldn't you rather see the adult moon channel?"
FarmerJohn, Jun 11 2004
  

       Is that what they'd play at night? It just wouldn't be right to have a 24 hour sun channel.   

       Thinking about this further, this would perhaps help people with SAD if you do have it available whenever they need it (see link).
Worldgineer, Jun 11 2004
  

       it would be good where I live as we never see the bloody sun!!
etherman, Jun 11 2004
  

       you jest, world!
po, Jun 11 2004
  

       Damn, 2fries beat me to the SOHO link by a couple of minutes.
krelnik, Jun 11 2004
  

       [po], no joke. Here in Seattle it's quite common. I'm sure as you continue north it gets worse.
Worldgineer, Jun 11 2004
  

       my meaning was that an image of a sun on a pc would not cure SAD. I think I suffer from that all year round (well, mebbe feel ok for 1 week in August)
po, Jun 11 2004
  

       Oh, then yes - I jest a bit. It's really the lack of light, not specifically sun, that makes SAD suferers depressed. But it would make you feel a bit like it's summer, with the sun on television, some bright lights on in the room, and perhaps birds chirping through a CD player.
Worldgineer, Jun 11 2004
  

       perhaps thats why I love the teletubbies
po, Jun 11 2004
  

       So what happens at night?   

       Does the cameraman then turn his attention to the moon? Does the camera somehow travel around the earth at a ridiculously high speed to keep the sun in shot? Or would the cameraman just point the camera to the sky where the sun will rise the following day?   

       (+) Because I missed the Venus transit
spiritualized, Jun 11 2004
  

       great idea. maybe 1. a satellite mounted camera to transmit 24/7; or 2. several cameras placed around the globe; and of course 3. the requisite 'moon channel'. finally a reason to buy one of those big plasma tv's. (+)
xclamp, Jun 11 2004
  

       // the camera // the cameraman //   

       They could use more than one, you know. Perhaps even situated at different locations.   

       Interesting idea, and though I'm usually in favour of off-planet related stuff, I don't see why anyone would actually put something like this together, for reasons already stated by Pericles. Just not economically viable.   

       Perhaps streaming video from SOHO or another similar probe broadcast to the web would be more doable, but that means there would be no eclipses or earth-sight transits visible. But you would get to see the sun eat comets occasionally, so there's a trade-off.
waugsqueke, Jun 11 2004
  

       See the link above to APOD, great photo of the Sun and Venus on there today (Jun 11). If you're looking tomorrow or after, you'll find it in the archives.
zigness, Jun 11 2004
  

       I'm sure the money from making this a pay channel would more than pay for the costs involved with producing it. In fact it could be rather profitable.
sartep, Jun 12 2004
  

       I’ve been staring at the sun since the sixties. Now you tell me.
ldischler, Jun 12 2004
  

       // making this a pay channel //   

       Well that presumes that people would actually pay for it. You belive they would and I don't, and there's no way to know which would be correct without market research.
waugsqueke, Jun 13 2004
  
      
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