Our Own Private Star

By John Minnerath

Our Sun is the reason for our existence. It provides us with light and warmth, that combined with the unique make up of Planet Earth, gives us our home.

The Sun makes up 98% of the Solar Systems total mass. It’s 109 times as wide as Earth and 333,000 times heavier. A gigantic nuclear furnace, it consumes 7,000,000 tons of itself per second. At its surface, the Photosphere, the temperature is 10,000°F and at the core about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.   About a million Earths could fit inside its immense size.

For all that, the Sun is a pretty mediocre star. It’s been burning for about 5 billion years and should continue doing so for another 5 billion.

Here is a full disk Hydrogen alpha image of the Sun courtesy NASA

The Sun is a fascinating object to observe and photograph. Recent advances in technology allow amateur astronomers like myself to now see and image it in Hydrogen alpha light as well as so-called White Light which is the normal visual spectrum. White Light solar photography is fairly simple and inexpensive to do. My Hydrogen alpha telescope is the very small but affordable Coronado PST with an aperture of 1 ½ inches.

The following are photos taken from my own small observatory, using the equipment in the photograph below. 

 

The few first images are in White Light, which can only show Sun Spots, Faculae, and sometimes surface granulation.

AR 11045  A recent large Sunspot group.

AR11035 

AR11040 

Hydrogen alpha requires a special filter allowing only light at 6562.8 angstroms to pass through. This is the light of the Solar Chromosphere.  At this wave length of light such features as prominences along the Solar limb can be seen. Filaments which are prominences seen from above. Plage areas are active regions on the Solar surface. Solar flares, and other details not visible in our normal visual spectrum can be seen and photographed in Hydrogen alpha light.

In some of the photos to follow I’ve placed a scale sized Earth to help appreciate the size involved.

Photographing in Hydrogen alpha to show prominences on the limb and surface features generally requires taking an image of the prominence and one of the surface, and then combining the 2 into a single image.  I sometimes do this and other times get enough of a prominence to show in a single image.

The following are mostly surface features.

I hope you all have enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoy taking them.

Stay warm under old Sol.

    

Comments

[Maureen Lang]

John,

Congratulations on the posting of this wonderful photo spread for all of us to enjoy!
I'm so glad you sent these images in to Pat. Further thanks to Cieran for making possible their display here.

[Jason]

Nice pictures. Thanks. How much is it to setup one of these telescopes?

[John Minnerath]

Jason,
The Coronado Ha PST is still the "volks-scope"
Easy to find at $500 or less.
It was designed by the late Andy Lunt, Coronado now is owned by Meade Instruments.
The Lunt family is still in the game with a line of Solar scopes under their own name.More costly, but with newer technology.
The PST at about 3 pounds can be mounted on a good photo tripod with a pan head for visual use.
A lot of folks like a Zoom eye piece with a Solar scope. The Baader Hyperian 8-24mm at about $200 is a good one.
Other than a dark cloth to get under so your pupils will dilate to allow you to see the faint and subtle detail, there isn't much else needed.
John

[Douglass Schumacher]

Great pictures! I'm amazed your apparatus is so affordable. I'm in the middle of Columbus, Ohio. Would a setup like yours work here for night time viewing? Also, are there other useful hydrogen lines for the amateur?

(I've never posted here before. Hello!)

[John Minnerath]

Douglass, thank you for your comments.
The most basic of Hydrogen alpha observing rigs is still fairly inexpensive, imaging adds another level of expense and complexity.
My equipment is an accumulation of many years, the main scope now would cost about $7,000 to replace.
The hydrogen alpha line is also captured photographically in deep space objects, nothing can be seen of it visually. But, the filter system used is completely different than that for Solar work.
Where you live isn't as important as whether or not you have skies dark enough to see anything.
Light pollution rapidly destroys what we can see through a telescope with out eyes. I happen to live where the sky is so pristine the Milky Way can cast a shadow!
The fact that light pollution is so wide spread is one of the reasons astrophotography has become so popular, the camera can see through it.
But, not to despair. Except for places like downtown NYC, there is the Moon and the brighter planets and it's often possible to travel to a darker location without too much fuss.
You might check to see if there are any amateur astronomy clubs near you.

[Douglass Schumacher]

"I happen to live where the sky is so pristine the Milky Way can cast a shadow!"

You have no idea what that image does to me. I'm a 48 year old physicist, but I've only seen the Milky Way a handful of times on camping trips. I thought I was looking at a cloud the first time. I still remember the moment. Okay - I'm inspired. I'll start smaller, but it's time to put a rig of my own together. Thanks.

[John Minnerath]

Live camera feed for today's Total Solar eclipse from Easter Island.
http://www.shelios.com/sh2010/

[Maureen Lang]

Excellent link, John, much thanks.

[John Minnerath]

You're most welcome. Too bad the weather there was such a bust.
Since this eclipse occurred in such a remote area, good photographs will be fairly limited.
A few are already being uploaded to Space Weather.com.

[Maureen Lang]

John,

Weather regardless, there are some wonderful pics posted over at spaceweather.com that folks have sent in. Direct link to the eclipse gallery below:

http://www.spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_11jul10_page2.htm?PHPSESSID=590ci37c261qj47hqg4msbcpa0

[John Minnerath]

For those interested, here is a link to the finest photos I've seen yet for this event.
Pure classics when it comes to Solar eclipse photography.
http://ukastroimaging.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49688.0

PS: I can't remember if membership in this forum is needed to view images.

John

[Maureen Lang]

Membership is required to view images, but well worth the effort- I joined & am enjoying perusing all the image postings, solar, planetary, & otherwise, as well as the excellent forum topics/threads.

Haven't had this much fun on a site in a long time- reminds me of when I 1st discovered Sky & Telescope magazine way back in the day. Thanks for posting this great link, John.