Deep Sky Workflows

Hydrogen alpha filters admit only an extremely small amount of light, measured in angstroms (10 angstroms is 1 nanometer). The contrast gives us a view into the chromosphere, a layer of plasma and gas that exists above the sun's photosphere, or 'surface' as we know it. We can see variations in temperature on the solar surface. Large, round structures are sunspots - still thousands of degrees Fahrenheit but cooler than their surroundings due to the effect of magnetic fields. These same fields can suspend columns of superheated gas above the surface. At the edge, prominences snake out looking deceptively small but spanning spaces larger than the earth. Seen head on, they appear as elongated filaments. Here is our closest star from early afternoon on Tuesday, March 26th.

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