We can take pictures of the Sun from very far away using powerful telescopes. When we take the really beautiful images, such as the ones that the Solar Dynamics Observatory takes (e.g. http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/...w.php?v=item&id=83), they are actually take from Earth orbit. Thats almost 100 MILLION miles away from the Sun where over heating is definitely not a problem! At least not due to heat from the Sun. The telescopes that are used on SDO are very powerful and can magnify the Sun so well that we can see more detail that we ever have before!