Wordless Wednesday

Spots, Little and Large

Saturday was a day for spotting spots.
First was a Gatekeeper butterfly which obligingly settled on some pond plants for a while:



Both under and top of the wings have two little white spots in a black circle:






It was just the right weather for looking up as well as down.
Moving from the tiny to the ginormous:



As it came into view recently Sunspot AR2665, the largest seen this year, was observed to be growing rapidly. The dark centre is larger than the Earth.

A closer crop:




Gentle reminder folks: looking or pointing a camera or telescope straight at the Sun is a definite NO NO unless you are using a filter designed for that purpose. The Solar filter I use reduces the strength of the Sunlight something like 10,000 times to make it safe to point the camera at the Sun. I wrote about it here.

Gatekeeper

I try to remember to have the little Nikon in my shirt pocket when I am pottering round the garden. Fortunately I had remembered before I hauled out the garden hose to give my potted plants a good soaking. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a small brown flutter land nearby. Several seem to visit but rarely settle. Of course this one landed with wings closed and in a awkward spot to get a clear view without disturbing it:



Then it moved higher up but again with wings closed. At at least the viewing angle was better:



I had expected it to fly away but to my delight it stayed a while and opened it wings so I could take some better shots:





Eventually it moved on but only when the hose spray got too close for comfort. At least it stayed long enough for me to identify it as a Gatekeeper by its colouring and the twin white spots near the front tips of its wings.