Sun

Solar Flares  Date: 7-30-04 two minute webcam exposure using an H-alpha filter.  Telescope was a Televue Genesus 500mm apo and a 2x barlow lense.

The Sun

This picuture was taken using a webam and videoing the Sun for about 2 minutes.  In order to filter out the bright light of the Sun, I used an H-alpha filter to only allow the wavelength of Hydrogen to pass through.  Hydrogen is the primary element that the Sun uses to fuel itself.  The Sun converts Hydrogen to Helium through nuclear fusion.  It consumes about 600 million tons of hydrogen per second!  The Sun is the life giving souce of energy for our Earth.  The size is determined by the balance of it's crushing gravity and the force of nuclear fusion energy that wants to make it expand.  Our sun is a mid size star.  The flares you see in the photograph would envelope the earth.  

Another picture of the sun taken the same day with my D2H Nikon camera using an H-alpha filter on a 4" APO (550mm)

Picture taken with an aluminum filter.  A large sun spot can be seen.  The large spot is about the size of the earth.  It is a portion of the sun's surface that is at a lower temperature.  I used my D2H Nikon SLR to take the picture (1/500 of a second at F9 using a 10"RC telescope).

More web cam pictures using H-alpha filter.