Astrophotographer Mark Johnston received a entrance row seat to an epic fireworks present.
Johnston, a NASA photo voltaic system ambassador and vp of the Phoenix Astronomical Society, was observing the solar in late August with a {custom} telescope when he captured photos of unbelievable arcs of plasma (tremendous heated gases) often called photo voltaic prominences rising to unbelievable heights above the floor of our star.
Johnston assembled the pictures he received of the photo voltaic spectacle into the gorgeous video above. “The peak of the most important of the 2 prominences within the video is about 160K km or 100K miles,” Johnston advised House.com by way of e-mail.
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“For the video, I took about 100 540-frame movies 25 seconds aside, in order that the time lapse video represents about an hour of actual time exercise on the solar. Some photos within the video are extra blurry than others on account of momentary modifications in atmospheric seeing circumstances.
“Basically the seeing was good, about 4/5. All photos taken by me from my yard in Scottsdale, Arizona.”
Along with the epic video, Johnston captured breathtaking stills of the solar’s exercise.
“The static photos had been captured between 16:00-17:00 UT [(12 p.m. ET and 1 p.m. ET)] on Aug. 29,” Johnston stated. “Every static picture requires taking a 2000-frame high-speed video of 9 millisecond exposures. Then I extract the 200 most in-focus frames and apply additional sharpening, denoise and add coloration.”
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Johnston caught some unbelievable photo voltaic fireworks three days previous to taking pictures the footage above. “In considered one of them, there’s a giant triangular blob of plasma ejected by the solar, nonetheless faintly linked by way of plasma that follows magnetic discipline traces,” Johnston stated.
“Within the different there’s an uncommon scythe-shaped prominence.”
“For all photographs I used my TEC160FL refractor which I custom-modified right into a double stacked hydrogen-alpha photo voltaic telescope,” Johnston wrote.
Keep in mind: viewing the solar might be harmful with out the appropriate tools. By no means look immediately on the solar with the bare eye, particularly by extra optics like telescopes or binoculars. No matter gear you employ, ensure it has an authorized photo voltaic filter. For those who’re simply getting began, a sensible telescope with a photo voltaic filter just like the Unistellar Equinox 2 may be your greatest wager.
Editor’s Observe: For those who snap a picture of the solar – taking all precautions – and want to share it with House.com’s readers, ship your photograph(s), feedback, and your title and site to spacephotos@area.com.
