THIS PAGE IS DEDICATED TO VIDEO CCD IMAGES OF THE SUN

The Sun is the closest star to us. The distance between us and the Sun is only 8 light minutes, compared to more than four light years for the next nearest star.

Here's several images of the Sun that I have taken with my video CCD camera. I use the Video Highway Extreme video capture card to capture the "live" images of the Sun. Before the images were captured, I use its software to control the brightness and contrast. The captured images have more "sunspots" than the Sun itself. If you have seen that images, you must have thought we have already in the middle of solar maximum but these "sunspots" are actually dusts on the optical window of the CCD chip of the camera. I use some software to clean up these extra features.
 


It was taken with my MN56 telescope which is a 5inch Mak-Newt. I have placed a Thousand Oaks solar filter in front of the telescope. To reduce the incoming light further I placed a cardboard with a 1 inch hole. That means, it can be said as an image taken  with a telescope smaller than a binocular! Please click on the image to get a bigger image.
 

Here are a couple of close up view of the sunspots group in the middle of the Sun. These close up views are possible by adding a 2x barlow lengthen the focal length of the tele- scope by twice. These sunspots group have been traveling across the surface of the Sun for around a week or more and are now very close to the limb. Another two or three days, they will be gone. What makes me thrill about this image is that I was able to capture the faculae. Faculae is the white patch around the sunspots and are readily visible with our eyes through the telescope especially if the sunspots are large and near the limb.
 

For great images of the Sun everyday, go to this site.
http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/latest.html

Below is the image I have saved from that site one day after I took the above images
for your comparison.


 
 

 


PAGE 2    SOLAR ECLIPSES

PAGE 3    SOLAR IMAGES TAKEN WITH H-a IMAGES

PAGE 4    PLANETARIES TRANSIT OF THE SUN

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