True color closeup pics of the Sun

[danielj]

I search the net through Google and find several closeup and even extreme closeups pics of the Sun.But I wonder which are the better resolution TRUE COLOR images of the Sun?Where can I find them?

[t00fri]

I search the net through Google and find several closeup and even extreme closeups pics of the Sun.But I wonder which are the better resolution TRUE COLOR images of the Sun?Where can I find them?

In order to deal with the enoooooooooooooooormous brightness of the sun, one is usually forced to take images in EXTREMELY narrowband filter conditions.

A very effective method of viewing the sun is by isolating the Hydrogen-Alpha wavelength at 656.3nm and rejecting all other types of light by means of a sophisticated filter arrangement. Other isolated atomic emission lines in the UV or IR are used e.g. by the SOHO instrument. Typical filters have a bandwidth of <<0.6 Angstroem = 0.6 *10^-10 meters!!!

Perhaps without telling more, you will reach the conclusion yourself that your quest for TRUE COLOR imaging of the SUN was not quite the right question


Bye Fridger

[Tanketai]

I don't know about true colors; as t00fri said, imaging the sun is usually done with several filters... but as for the close-ups and their data, here's a website I found recently.

The Institute for Solar Physics

[ANDREA]

Let me try to clear the question:
I've observed many times the Sun through telescopes, but using filters that gave a bluish or orange resulting color, this due to the kind of filter coating.
If we could use a NEUTRAL filter, just dimming the "visual" Sun image, 100,000 times or more, at ALL wavelenghts, what would be the resulting color?
Light yellow? Whitish yellow? Any other?
Bye

Andrea

[t00fri]

I don't know about true colors; as t00fri said, imaging the sun is usually done with several filters... but as for the close-ups and their data, here's a website I found recently.

The Institute for Solar Physics

Yes, of course, I have all those hires images in my standard solar archive. But I didn't mention them since Daniel wrote that he found the hires stuff.

These are of course NOT TRUE COLOR, but presumably also at the H-alpha line.

The available filters corresponding to discrete atomic lines are quoted in 'Observing-> filter list'

Bye Fridger

[t00fri]

Let me try to clear the question:
I've observed many times the Sun through telescopes, but using filters that gave a bluish or orange resulting color, this due to the kind of filter coating.
If we could use a NEUTRAL filter, just dimming the "visual" Sun image, 100,000 times or more, at ALL wavelenghts, what would be the resulting color?
Light yellow? Whitish yellow? Any other?
Bye

Andrea

Andrea,

we are talking about real HIRES solar imaging. Most of the features of interest are simply NOT visible in visual light.

I have just observed the solar eclipse 2 days ago with the standard Mylar foil which does not add any color. The sun is just a pale white ball. TRUE COLOR, if you like
But that would sure not work for seing images like those

http://www.solarphysics.kva.se/

I suppose the light must be /coherent/ for seing such things whence the extreme narrow bandedness. For the same reason you can see things in /coherent/ He-Ne laser light that would be invisible in /incoherent/ light.

Cheers,
Bye Fridger

[ANDREA]

what would be the resulting color? Light yellow? Whitish yellow? Any other?
Bye Andrea

Andrea,
we are talking about real HIRES solar imaging. Most of the features of interest are simply NOT visible in visual light.
I have just observed the solar eclipse 2 days ago with the standard Mylar foil which does not add any color. The sun is just a pale white ball. TRUE COLOR, if you like

Fridger, I absolutely agree on this

But that would sure not work for seing images like those http://www.solarphysics.kva.se/ I suppose the light must be /coherent/ for seing such things whence the extreme narrow bandedness. For the same reason you can see things in /coherent/ He-Ne laser light that would be invisible in /incoherent/ light. Cheers,
Bye Fridger

Yes, but at the same time I understand the doubt of Danielj, considering that in the same page it's clearly told that: (clip)...colors are added for aesthetic reasons and for improved contrast..(clip)
The Sun image has ever been given as plus or minus orange, being it a G type star, but I well know that the star colors (and the Sun doesn't differ) are very dim and subtle, difficult to be seen by eye, so here is the result of whitish Sun image, IMHO
And, BTW, these images are the best ones I've ever seen, incredibly sharp. I've been a couple times in Tenerife's Izana Observatory as guest for one week work at the MONS Telescope, and had the chance to observe with VNI solar telescope, but the quality of images was very far away from these ones. OK, the instrument was about 15-10 years older, and this probably is the reason of so big a difference.
Bye

Andrea

[t00fri]

Andrea,

I agree, these images are gorgeous! They are actually the highest resolution images in existence. But since they have been taken in an EXTREMELY monochromatic environment, color largely loses it's descriptive meaning. It's just ONE single false color. Any color is as good as any other one.

That's behind my statement above that the concept of TRUE COLOR in this hires context makes NO SENSE...


Cheers,
Bye Fridger

[julesstoop]

The DOT (Dutch Open Telescope) is capable of making registrations of several dicreet bands of the solar spectrum at the same time. Really amazing, the differences between these.


http://dot.astro.uu.nl/movies/2005-07-0 ... 3morph.mpg

http://dot.astro.uu.nl/movies/2005-07-07-AR10786-4p.mpg

[Tech Sgt. Chen]

As far as true color images, this link has none but, it might help you to understand the principles of the Sun's true color.
http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/dir3/starcolor/sun.html
If you want to find images of the Sun in large quantities, use the Google Image Search Engine at:
http://images.google.com
Use the Advanced Image Search catagory and then type in (for best results, only use a couple of keywords at a time) as many different Sun/Solar related keywords as you can think of.

[t00fri]

The DOT (Dutch Open Telescope) is capable of making registrations of several dicreet bands of the solar spectrum at the same time. Really amazing, the differences between these.


http://dot.astro.uu.nl/movies/2005-07-0 ... 3morph.mpg

http://dot.astro.uu.nl/movies/2005-07-07-AR10786-4p.mpg

Very nice, julesstoop!


Notably in the second movie it should become obvious that one really needs a true /simultaneous/ multichannel imaging setup even for false multicolor displays, due to the strong time variability of features at high resolution!

Up to now this was not possible.

Bye Fridger

[julesstoop]

They indeed more or less 'prove' that there is no such thing as a simple true color representation of the sun.