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Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip
Explanation:
Enjoying the 2004
Transit of Venus from Stuttgart, Germany,
astronomer Stefan Seip recorded
this fascinating, detailed image of the Sun.
Revealing a network of cells and dark
filaments against
a bright solar disk with spicules and
prominences along
the Sun's limb, his telescopic picture
was taken through an H-alpha filter.
The filter
narrowly transmits only the red light from
hydrogen atoms and emphasizes the
solar chromosphere --
the region of the Sun's atmosphere immediately above
its photosphere or normally visible surface.
Here, the dark disk of Venus seems to be imitating a giant
sunspot that looks perhaps a little too round.
But in H-alpha pictures
like this one, sunspot regions
are usually dominated by bright splotches (called
plages) on the
solar chromosphere.
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: sunspot - H-alpha
Publications with words: sunspot - H-alpha
See also: