Devendran, a 55-year-old observer, positions the six-inch telescope at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 6, 2017. In the early morning darkness, Devendran P. walks up a hill to a solar observatory in India's southern hill town of Kodaikanal, trudging the same path his father and grandfather walked in a century-old family tradition of studying the sun. Once inside, he pulls a rope to open shutters in the dome and positions a six-inch telescope used since 1899 to photograph the sun and preserve a daily record of its activity. “The sun, like stars, has a lifetime of 10 billion years”, Devendran told Reuters during a recent visit to the observatory in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu. “If you want to know about any small changes, you need to have a large amount of data”. The observatory run by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics has a key role in providing a continuous stream of data on the sun and its influence on Earth and surrounding space, said R. Ramesh, a professor at the institute. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





A six-inch telescope is seen inside an observation dome at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 5, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





Observation records are seen inside the library at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 3, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





An observer opens the dome of an observation tower at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 4, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





Observation plates are seen inside the library at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 3, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





A technician works inside the archival digitisation lab at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 3, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





Devendran, a 55-year-old observer, works inside the solar tunnel telescope at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 5, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





Observation records are seen inside the library at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 3, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





Sunlight beams through the dome of the solar tunnel telescope at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 3, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





A technician works inside a darkroom at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 4, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





A solar tunnel telescope dome is seen through a darkroom at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 4, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





An abandoned observatory is seen at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 4, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





Volumes of observation records are seen inside the library at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 3, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





Paramasivan points to the statue of sun god Surya at a temple outside the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 5, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





A technician holds the photographic film plate with observational data inside the archival digitisation lab at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory, India, February 3, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)





A portrait of Parthasarathy hangs on a wall of his ancestral house in Kodaikanal, India, February 6, 2017. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)