This book is not so much about the Sun, but about the opportunities for amateur astronomers to observe the Sun. Compared with other areas of astronomy solar observing has a number of advantages: Observation can be carried out during the day. You do not have to stay up all night and arrive at work the next day exhausted! There is an abundance of light. Unlike "Deep Sky" astronomy you actually have to discard much of the light reaching your telescope. You can set up your observatory in your own backyard - even in the city -there is no need to escape light pollution at remote locations. Observations can be made practically every clear day and some simple programs like sunspot counts can be done in just a few minutes. You do not need a monster telescope, even a small telescope will show an amazing amount of detail. The view is constantly changing, the Sun's appearance has never been, nor will it ever be exactly the same as today. This book was conceived and written by a group of German amateur observers. Each section was the responsibility of the amateur who had made that aspect of solar astronomy his specialty. The emphasis was on the practical and covers the kind of solar astronomy within the reach of most amateurs. Soon after publication it was declared by many reviewers as the "standard work" and much correspondence reached the authors from abroad requesting an English translation. In terms of content the basic infor

