This is a telescopic close-up of the eclipsed Sun at the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, with the Sun's intricate atmosphere, the corona, surroundi
This is a telescopic close-up of the eclipsed Sun at the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, with the Sun's intricate atmosphere, the corona, surrounding the dark silhouetted disk of the Moon. The corona is marked by swirls, loops and streamers shaped by magnetic fields (note the loops around the pink prominences) and exhibits the classic round, symmetrical, and flower-like shape of a solar maximum corona. Peeking out from behind the right limb of the Moon are several bright prominences, pink from bright hydrogen emission. They were most obvious at this eclipse toward the end of totality as the Moon uncovered them on the western limb of the Sun. The corona appears silvery-blue in tone, with the dim red outer halo likely coming from atmospheric diffraction effects from the high cirrus cloud the Sun was embedded in for this eclipse at my site in Quebec on the east shore of Lac Brome. Even so, despite the clouds, a few stars shine through: the 5th magnitude double star Zeta Piscium at the 9 o'clock posiiton left of the Sun, and 6th magnitude 88 Piscium at the 8 o'clock position below. I do not see any sign of the SOHO sun-grazing comet in the field. Celestial north is approximately at top in this orientation. This version was created by using luminosity masks to blend the exposures. I have alternative versions blended with other methods for a different look. Here, in blending the exposures I tried to present a "natural" looking result more as the eye saw it, with a softer, and not highly sharpened look, and also balancing the retention of detail in the bright inner corona while still making it look brighter than the fainter outer parts of the corona, just as the eye saw it. However, the solar corona's wide dynamic range makes it a challenge to capture and process to reveal detail within it while still presenting an image with a semblance of the brightness range the eye can take in but that the camera has difficulty capturing. This is a stack of 18 exposur
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Photo credit: © Alan Dyer / VWPics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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