The Sun on February 10, 2024
February 10, 2024
Tags: Solar Astronomy, Astronomy, H-alpha Solar Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography
WARNING: When observing the Sun, be sure to do so safely! Use only equipment that is designed specifically for that purpose and is produced by reputable manufacturers. Follow their directions closely. Do not improvise your own filter material for solar observing. If you are careless, you risk instant and permanent vision loss or injury.
Today’s forecast called for a beautifully clear and mild weather. With some interesting solar activity currently ongoing, it was a no-brainer for me to set up my solar observing gear early this afternoon.
For this solar photo shoot, I was careful to orientate my camera in the same way on both my 60mm H-alpha solar scope and my 4-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain equipped with a glass white light solar filter. That way, all of my images would be uniformly orientated.
Here’s the view through the H-alpha scope in color:
And in black and white:
I think the color shot shows prominence activity much better while the monochrome shot shows surface detail better. I could have toned down the magenta of the color image a bit, but I ultimately decided to leave it as the camera’s sensor “saw” it.
And here’s the white-light view through the 4-inch Mak with glass white light solar filter:
That sunspot group in the middle is a particularly angry region on the Sun. As spaceweather.com reports, that region ‘has a “beta-gamma-delta’ magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares.”