Bright talent: Stunning sun photographs taken by British star-gazer from his back garden in Barnsley




Star gazer Andy Devey's head is in the clouds after his close-up snaps of the sun, taken from his back garden, were featured on the Nasa website.



His spectacular pictures are now being viewed by millions of space fans around the globe who regularly log on to the world famous website.



Andy, 55, a retired colliery manager, who has been an amateur astronomer for six years, uses a host of telescopes and cameras to capture the images from his back garden in Darton, Barnsley.

All right, sun: Amateur astronomer Andrew Devey from Barnsley took this picture through his telescope

Fame game: Mr Devey's stunning photographs were featured on Nasa's website and viewed by thousands around the world

Other sun shots he's taken have made the front cover of the British Astronomical year book for 2011.



The sun was born 4.6billion years ago and is roughly 100 times wider than the Earth, with a diameter of 840,000 miles – and is a fair bit hotter, too.

Its surface temperature is in the region of 5,500C, rising to a whopping 15,000,000C at the centre.



This is where hydrogen, which makes up 75 per cent of the sun’s mass, is fused into helium at the rate of half a million tons every second. It’s a lot, but there’s enough hydrogen to keep the sun burning for around 5,000 million years.

Heat is on: Mr Devey's photograph shows the turbulent surface of the sun, which reaches 5,500C

When its hydrogen reserves run out, it will expand into a red giant star and could engulf the Earth.



At this point it will just be burning helium. When that, too, runs out, the sun will collapse into a white dwarf the size of the Earth, made of carbon and oxygen.



It will take billions of years to cool down to the background temperature of the Universe.

Photographic star: Mr Devey took his amazing photographs from his back garden, with a little help from his pet dog



