Abstract
The Sun is a main-sequence star of average mass, luminosity, and effective temperature — one of about 1011 in our galaxy. The only distinction is that the Sun is much closer to us. Next to the Sun the nearest star, α Centauri with its companions, is more than 105 times farther away. This has two consequences: First, the Sun is the only star where details on the surface can be spatially resolved; and second, the flux of radiation from the Sun is so intense that many studies which cannot be undertaken with other stars are possible, in particular those which simultaneously require very high spectral resolution and high resolution in space and time.
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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Stix, M. (1989). Tools for Solar Observation. In: The Sun. Astronomy and Astrophysics Library. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-97129-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-97129-7_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-53796-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-97129-7
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