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