Tauranga space gazers have captured fascinating images of a spectacular solar phenomenon on their new special planetary camera.

The pictures are of sun spots which have launched six major flares towards earth from the surface of the sun.

Pictures of the solar flares captured by the Tauranga Observatory.

Stuart Murray, president of the Tauranga Astronomical Society says a special filter had to be applied to the front of the observatory's telescopes to enable them to viewing solar show.

The facts and numbers are mind-boggling.

The largest spot, astronomically dubbed AR12192, is the biggest for 24 years – it's approximately 140,000 kilometres in diameter and would swallow earth ten times over.

And the largest flares produce as much energy as a billion thermonuclear weapons.

The sun spots, which are part of an eleven-year solar cycle, consist of enormous bursts of energy and plasma producing electromagnetic particles.

While harmless to people on earth, these intense outbursts have repeatedly interfered with precision navigation and high-frequency radio systems during the past two weeks.

International space experts have issued 30 official alerts to pilots and satellite operators of high-frequency radio blackouts.

But fortunately, says Mr Murray, earth is protected from the particles most of the time by its own magnetic field

From earth, the spots present as dark holes in the sun's surface. They're considerably cooler than the surrounding surface of the sun which is several thousand degrees, but the spots still appear very bright.

As the sun rotates through a period of around 25 days, the spots move across the sun's surface, eventually disappearing to the rear and then reappearing again on the opposite side.

And while this remarkable phenomenon has space experts sitting on the edge of their seats, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the sunspots have been 'pretty benign so far”.