Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Rise and Shine

Today is a very busy day for me and with the humidity levels lower than they have been in several weeks and the resulting blue(er) skies, I made an effort to get up early today to observe the Sun in white light.  Due to my schedule today I was out observing the Sun before 7 AM (MST) while it was less than 10 degrees above the horizon.  Given that I was looking through approximately twice the atmosphere than I would be during a mid-morning observation, I was pleasantly surprised at how steady the image was.  The picture below was taken with the Sun at an altitude of just 12 degrees above the horizon, at 6:56 AM local time.  For comparison, the image at right is from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

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