Having been into Astronomy since the age of 6 – yes I know, it’s a long time ago – there aren’t that many things that I haven’t seen first hand telescopically. I’ve looked at the Sun before using filters and projection mechanisms (insert standard disclaimer about being very careful and seeking expert advice on how to do this – it’s dangerous!), seen sunspots and so on.
However, today was the first day I’ve ever seen the Sun in ‘Hydrogen’.
The basic premise is that all the interesting stuff about the Sun is actually hidden from us, mostly because of the brightness, but also because the Sun pumps out all sorts of frequencies of light from different parts of its ’surface’. The really interesting stuff is drowned out visually, even when you dampen it down. To see any real detail you need to be really discriminating about what light you look at.
To be specific you need to chuck away everything but a very narrow frequency of light – the Hydrogen Alpha frequency of 656.3 nm. Our Astronomical society has just purchased a scope able to do this. The Coronado PST. Typically it was cloudy most of the weekend, but we managed to get a view through it towards the end of the afternoon.
We could see sunspots, faculae, filaments and, most spectacularly of all, prominences – huge loops of gas rolling out of the Sun. Even better, with a bit of quick experimentation, I managed to hook my trusty SLR up to the ’scope and grab a picture. A fantastic experience – and I think they’ll be a queue of people wanting to borrow the ’scope. It’s available to reserve for members of AAS.
Enjoy the picture!
Solar Flare imaged using Coronado PST and SLR
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