Fridays Calcium Images - 5th July
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2019 8:55 am
The sky was beautifully transparent on friday morning, deep blue and lacking in any haze, so I decided to have a go at some calcium imaging, and at the same time test out the Grasshopper 3 IMX174 at these shorter wavelengths for some closer images. First up though the full disk, prime focus with the 100mm Tal refractor at 1000mm focal length, using the homebrew CaK filter and the GH3 ICX916M camera, make sure you double click for the full size view in flickr.
Cak-FD-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Cak-FD-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
You can just about make out the inverse granulation that is visible. Granulation is a feature of the photosphere we can see in white light, where cells of solar plasma rise and fall. The edges of the cells are cooler with the falling plasma and so the boundaries appear darker - regular granulation. With inverse granulation we are viewing the same features at the base of the chromosphere, here the cells themselves are a lot cooler than their edges, so, the cells are darker and the cell edges / boundaries appear lighter. It's all about 'relative' light levels in the same way that sunspots appear dark on the solar disk, despite them being only slightly 'cooler' than the surroundings they sit in.
Anyways, zooming in with the same scope and 3x barlow with the GH3 IMX174 camera this time with its larger pixels I set out to explore the sun. First off the region of plage that is associated with the active regions that first appeared at the end of march / beginning of April.
ex-ar-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ex-ar-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
I wonder in another couple of weeks time there will still be some plage remaining, albeit at diminished extent? A small emerging flux region was also visible in (cycle 24) equatorial regions, that may well have just sported a few pores briefly.
efr.-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
efr.-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Turning my attention to the poles, and polar faculae indicative of solar minimum were visible in both hemispheres:
npole-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
npole-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
polar-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
polar-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
First impressions are I like this camera at CaK wavelengths, probably more so than at Ha, the fast frame rate certainly helps. I think next steps will be to try it out with the SSM to get better data to play with. All these were stacks of only 16 images. Did get some Ha too, but will have to wait till later to process them.
Mark
Cak-FD-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Cak-FD-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
You can just about make out the inverse granulation that is visible. Granulation is a feature of the photosphere we can see in white light, where cells of solar plasma rise and fall. The edges of the cells are cooler with the falling plasma and so the boundaries appear darker - regular granulation. With inverse granulation we are viewing the same features at the base of the chromosphere, here the cells themselves are a lot cooler than their edges, so, the cells are darker and the cell edges / boundaries appear lighter. It's all about 'relative' light levels in the same way that sunspots appear dark on the solar disk, despite them being only slightly 'cooler' than the surroundings they sit in.
Anyways, zooming in with the same scope and 3x barlow with the GH3 IMX174 camera this time with its larger pixels I set out to explore the sun. First off the region of plage that is associated with the active regions that first appeared at the end of march / beginning of April.
ex-ar-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
ex-ar-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
I wonder in another couple of weeks time there will still be some plage remaining, albeit at diminished extent? A small emerging flux region was also visible in (cycle 24) equatorial regions, that may well have just sported a few pores briefly.
efr.-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
efr.-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
Turning my attention to the poles, and polar faculae indicative of solar minimum were visible in both hemispheres:
npole-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
npole-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
polar-cak-bw by Mark Townley, on Flickr
polar-cak-colour by Mark Townley, on Flickr
First impressions are I like this camera at CaK wavelengths, probably more so than at Ha, the fast frame rate certainly helps. I think next steps will be to try it out with the SSM to get better data to play with. All these were stacks of only 16 images. Did get some Ha too, but will have to wait till later to process them.
Mark