Spectacular photos of the sun taken from Kent back garden - The Sun

GIVING NASA a run for their money, Paul Andrews captures spectacular photos of the sun's surface from the comfort of his back garden.

Paul captures super sharp images of clouds of material whirling around on the fiery star 93 million miles away — just yards from his back door.

Thanks to a special solar telescope costing thousands of pounds, Paul can take photographs almost as clear as the world's best observatories.

Paul, 58, said: "I can get an amazing amount of detail now.

"The bigger the telescope, the finer the detail that can be seen.

"I love watching the jets of gas that have been thrown off the surface.

"It can change from minute to minute.

"That is one of the most exciting things about this kind of photography."

Paul's new telescope has a six-inch diameter lens which filters out the sun's harmful rays.

Its photographs, taken from his 300 yard back garden in St Margaret's Bay, near Dover, in Kent, depict strands of hydrogen gas sticking out from its profile.

In the front-on images, they appear as dark lines or strokes and are known as filaments.

Paul, a professional photographer, added: "I try and get out as early as possible in the morning, around 9am.

"As the day goes on the earth's atmosphere becomes very turbulent and you can actually degrade the image of the sun.

"Photographs taken in the morning tend to be a lot clearer and sharper."

Mr Andrews, who is married to wife Claire, is the founder and president of his local astronomy society and has been snapping the sun for around five years.

The dad of one added: "These photos have been taken over the last two months, since I got my new specialised solar telescope.

"It's just about the biggest commercial telescope you can get, and filters out the harmful white light, heat and ultra violet light that would damage your eye sight.

"Now I can see the hydrogen gas bubbling and will dash out when the sun comes out between the clouds."

Mr Andrews will take thousands of images and then uses computer software to select the best shots and merge them together.

"It's very much a passion of mine," he said.

"I've got a couple of mini observatories set up in the garden now."