Astrophotographer Mark Johnston got a front row seat to an impressive fireworks reveal.
Johnston, a NASA planetary system ambassador and vice president of the Phoenix Astronomical Society, was observing the sun in late August with a customized telescope when he caught pictures of amazing arcs of plasma (very heated gases) referred to as solar prominences increasing to extraordinary heights above the surface area of our star.
Johnston put together the images he got of the solar phenomenon into the sensational video above. “The height of the biggest of the 2 prominences in the video has to do with 160K km or 100K miles,” Johnston informed Space.com by means of e-mail.
A 100,000-mile (161,000-km) solar prominence photographed by Mark Johnston of Scottsdale, Arizona on Aug. 29, 2024. (Image credit: Mark Johnston)
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“For the video, I took about 100 540-frame videos 25 seconds apart, so that the time lapse video represents about an hour of actual time activity on the sun. Some images in the video are more fuzzy than others due to brief modifications in climatic seeing conditions.
“In basic the seeing was excellent, about 4/5. All images taken by me from my yard in Scottsdale, Arizona.”
In addition to the legendary video, Johnston caught awesome stills of the sun’s activity.
“The fixed images were recorded in between 16:00 -17:00 UT [(12 p.m. ET and 1 p.m. ET)] on Aug. 29,” Johnston stated. “Each fixed image needs taking a 2000-frame high-speed video of 9 millisecond direct exposures. I draw out the 200 most in-focus frames and use more honing, denoise and include color.”
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A sunspot photographed by Mark Johnston of Scottsdale, Arizona on Aug. 29, 2024.(Image credit: Mark Johnston)
Johnston captured some extraordinary solar fireworks 3 days prior to shooting the video above. “In among them, there is a big triangular blob of plasma ejected by the sun, still faintly linked by means of plasma that follows electromagnetic field lines,” Johnston stated.
A triangular solar prominence photographed by Mark Johnston of Scottsdale, Arizona on Aug. 26, 2024. (Image credit: Mark Johnston)
“In the other there is an uncommon scythe-shaped prominence.”
A scythe-shaped solar prominence photographed by Mark Johnston of Scottsdale, Arizona on Aug. 26, 2024. (Image credit: Mark Johnston)
“For all images I utilized my TEC160FL refractor which I custom-modified into a double stacked hydrogen-alpha solar telescope,” Johnston composed.
Mark Johnston’s tailored TEC160FL refractor telescope. (Image credit: Mark Johnston)
Keep in mind: seeing the sun can be harmful without the ideal devices. Never ever look straight at the sun with the naked eye, specifically through extra optics like telescopes or field glasses. Whatever equipment you utilize, make certain it has a qualified solar filter. If you’re simply beginning, a wise telescope with a solar filter like the Unistellar Equinox 2 may be your best choice.