Amazing Eclipse Timelapse Shows the Sun’s Chromosphere

We’ve added loads of images and videos to our eclipse gallery from last night annular solar eclipse, but this one stands on its own. An amazing timelapse video by Cory Poole was made from 700 photographs taken with a Coronado Solar Max 60 Double Stack telescope. Usually, the chromosphere can’t usually be seen due to the overwhelming brightness of the photosphere, and to see it requires special equipment. Thankfully, Poole has it: “The Telescope has a very narrow bandpass allowing you to see the chromosphere and not the much brighter photosphere below it,” Poole wrote on YouTube. Additionally, the special hydrogen alpha filter Poole used “only allows light that is created when hydrogen atoms go from the 2nd excited state to the 1st excited state.”

The chromosphere is the red circle around the outside of the Sun; its red coloring is caused by the abundance of hydrogen. Watch how the chromosphere appears along the outline of the Moon, too!

Source:  Universe Today