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.