Sun Photography Help?

Hey I want to photograph (and hopefully time lapse) the sun in the sky but I never seem to get that nice circular shape that I see on photos, it just looks like a yellow ball of light and there isn’t much detail…
What settings should I put on? (The sun is currently rising, it’s about 12:00pm) I have a Nikon D90 if that helps.
If you don’t understand what I mean, I kinda want to get a picture like this: http://www.wallcoo.net/nature/twilight_p…
but instead I get something like this: http://www.photos-public-domain.com/2010…
Any tips and suggestions would be great Thanks in advance