Solar System Images
The sun is so bright that special filters must be used to image solar flares, sun spots and prominences.
I use a Solarmax etalon filter along with a blocking filter (solar telescope). These two filters, which are in
series, narrow the light reaching the camera or eyepiece to a single wavelength (656.28 nm), that of
hydrogen-alpha. Since the sun is primarily made up of hydrogen, this very narrow band of light is still
quite bright. Visually, hydrogen-alpha light appears as shades of red when viewing the sun through an
eyepiece.
Imaging is done using a DMK video camera which can quickly produce AVI files containing a thousand or
more images in 15-30 seconds. Software is used to select out the best 10% or so of the images and
stack them to give the images shown below. The individual images in the AVI video file vary in clarity
due to atmopheric effects which blur some of the images. Thankfully, these effects change quickly over
time and some of the images are much clearer than others. The idea is to take a lot of images and then
select out the best to make a composite image. In addition to solar imaging, this technique is used for
other bright astronomical objects like the planets and the moon. Normally I use the Celestron 9.25 SCT
for imaging the planets and the moon.
In some of the images shown below, an image of the Earth or a white disk has been added to show the
size of the feature relative to the Earth.
I use a Solarmax etalon filter along with a blocking filter (solar telescope). These two filters, which are in
series, narrow the light reaching the camera or eyepiece to a single wavelength (656.28 nm), that of
hydrogen-alpha. Since the sun is primarily made up of hydrogen, this very narrow band of light is still
quite bright. Visually, hydrogen-alpha light appears as shades of red when viewing the sun through an
eyepiece.
Imaging is done using a DMK video camera which can quickly produce AVI files containing a thousand or
more images in 15-30 seconds. Software is used to select out the best 10% or so of the images and
stack them to give the images shown below. The individual images in the AVI video file vary in clarity
due to atmopheric effects which blur some of the images. Thankfully, these effects change quickly over
time and some of the images are much clearer than others. The idea is to take a lot of images and then
select out the best to make a composite image. In addition to solar imaging, this technique is used for
other bright astronomical objects like the planets and the moon. Normally I use the Celestron 9.25 SCT
for imaging the planets and the moon.
In some of the images shown below, an image of the Earth or a white disk has been added to show the
size of the feature relative to the Earth.
| Solar Prominences from May 1, 2009, Solarmax 60/Borg 77ED |
| Saturn, 5/09, C9.25 f/20 |
| Solar Prominences, August 2009 |
| Jupiter, 9/09 C9.25 f/10 |
| Top, Jupiter, 09/09 C9.25, f20; bottom Planetarium shot |