We generally don’t get a lot of aurora here in southwestern Wisconsin mainly due to our latitude, we are simply too far south. Aurora displays are usually reserved for the more extreme northern and southern latitudes. With the increase in solar activity and size of solar flares, the conditions are right for us at the lower latitudes to be able to see more aurora displays. In the last two years we have been treated several times to wonderful displays like the most recent one. I shot the first short time lapse on 10-10-24 on StarSplitter Hill after a program for River Ridge school. The second one I shot north of Prairie du Chien on 10-6-24. There have been several large solar storms in the last couple weeks causing these beautiful displays in the night sky. As we approach solar maximum, some time in ’25, I’m predicting there will be more awesome aurora displays.
Author: Brian
The Sun’s Corona
This is a look at the Sun’s Corona we can only see during a total solar eclipse. I shot this during the April 8th, ’24 eclipse from Heber Springs, Arkansas. This image is a combination of 9 different exposures to be able to capture the inner, mid, and outer corona.
Total Eclipse of the Sun!!
I travelled to the middle of Arkasas to see this wonderful event. During totality I could see Venus and Jupiter bright in the sky. We had high clouds in the begining but got clearer as totality approached. There were some large promineces that were visible as well. Here are a few pictures I captured.
Two views of the Sun
Solar hydrogen alpha filter vs. solar white light filter
I shot both of these images on the same day with two different setups. The image on the left was shot with a solar hydrogen alpha filter and the one on the right was shot with a solar white light filter. The left image shows the chromosphere and the right image shows the photosphere. The chromosphere is between the photosphere and the corona, the sun’s upper atmosphere. Both of these images are captured in the visible spectrum. The left image is a very narrow bandwidth at 656.28 nanometers and the right image is the full visble spectrum. I capture these images of the Sun with a monochrome (black&white) camera and the color is added during editing. The actual color of the left image would be a very deep red and the right image would be pure white.
Solar Photography
There is much activity to see on the Sun with the right equipment. In these images you can see the snake-like structures called filaments, the darker areas called active regions usually surrounding sun spots, and the flares or prominences around the outer edge or limb. As we approach Solar Maximum this activity will continue to increase.
These images were shot on the afternoon of 3-15 from my backyard observatory with 2 different telescope setups. These images are shot with special filters designed for solar imaging. The filters block out all light except a very narrow bandwith of 656.28nm. The first image labelled SolarMax3, is a 30 panel mosaic. Each of the panels is the best 25% of 500 images. I shot a total of 15,000 images. The second image labelled Quark, is a 9 panel mosaic. Each panel is the bet 25% of 1000 images. I shot a total of 9,000 images. All of the images are processed then stitched together to create these images.
The Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster
This is the Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster, NGC2264, located in the constellation of Monoceros some 2700 light years from Earth. The nickname “Cone Nebula” comes from the inverted cone shaped structure near the center of this image. The very tip of the cone is a star forming region and the height of the cone is about 7 light years. This image was created with a monochrome (black & white) camera and 3 different narrowband filters. The filters highlight specific gases present in the nebula. The filters used were hydrogen alpha (red), sulphur 2 (deep red), and oxygen 3 (blue/green). This image is over 25 hours of capture time over several nights in southwestern Wisconsin.
