Comparison of H-alpha & White-Light at second contact (May 21, 2012)


Date & Time: May 21, 2012, times displayed in image
Optical: (Left, H-alpha) Coronado SolarMax40, afocal method with LV20mm eyepiece
(Right, White-Light) PENTAX 7.5cm(2.9") ED refractor with PowerMate 2.5X (f=1250mm, F16.7)
with BaaderPlanetarium AstroSolar filter
Auto-guided with TAKAHASHI EM-200 Equatorial
Digital Camera: Olympus C-3030Z (H-alpha), Nikon D700 (White-Light)
Location: Kujihama, Hitachi city, Ibaraki pref.

Camera Settings: Recording format...SHQ (2048×1536 JPEG, B/W mode)
(H-alpha)Lens...f=19.5mm (equivalent f=96mm in 35mm film format), stop: F2.8
CCD Sensitivity...ISO100, White Balance...Auto

Camera Settings: Recording Format...JPEG-FINE(4256×2832)
(White-Light)Device Size...FX format (36×24mm)
Sensitivity...ISO400, White Balance...Daylight


This set of images has been taken almost simultaneously at the second contact of Annular solar eclipse on May 21, 2012 with H-alpha and white-light.
An H-alpha image in left shows that the contact point of sun and moon looks already connected and become the Annular state, moreover some small prominences can be detected. While a white-light image in right looks the Annular eclipse has not started yet, although the image was taken at 3 seconds later. (The moon is moving toward ENE direction)
Actually we can observe the chromosphere of sun, atmospheric layer on solar surface, through H-alpha light, so an apparent size of the sun looks a bit larger than that looked with normal white-light. You can directly confirm the difference by these images.



Progress of Annular Solar Eclipse with H-alpha
Continuous composed image of Annular Solar Eclipse

Copyright(c) 2012 by Naoyuki Kurita, All rights reserved.
To top page To Eclipse index