My Solar Astronomy Journey

My interest in solar astronomy started when I got the opportunity to look through a solar hydrogen alpha telescope at the 2017 eclipse. I was captivated by what I could see on the Sun. In this discussion, I’ll go through how I started my solar astronomy journey, equipment I’ve used, things I’ve tried, custom equipment I’ve built, equipment I’m currently using, and processing techniques I’ve learned to create dramatic, high-resolution solar mosaic images. I’ll talk about how the Sun has changed over the last 7 years of my observations. The dramatic rise in solar activity in ’24 approaching solar maximum and what the next couple years may have in store. I’ll share images and stories of my eclipse experiences...

Lunar and Solar Image Processing: Under the Hood

At the January 10, 2025 MAS meeting, member Bob Hamers will give a special talk titled:

While commercial programs do a good job of processing most images. To get the very best result, it can be helpful to use additional tools to analyze, process, and visualize the process. In this talk, I’ll discuss some of the challenges of solar and lunar image processing and demonstrate some freeware tools that can be used to help get the most out of your data. As examples, I’ll walk through the processing of high-resolution, full-disc RGB imaging of the Moon and continuum imaging of the Sun, and I’ll briefly introduce the freeware tools ImageJ and Python.

Bob Hamers is a UW-Madison Professor of Chemistry and MAS member...

Solar Imaging 101

Our nearest star – the Sun – offers an ever-changing variety of astronomical phenomena, including prominences, sunspots, filaments, and prominences, that reveal the sun’s weather and can be observed from earth. As we come out of the solar minimum, solar activity is already rapidly ramping up with sunspots and solar storms. In this talk, I will give an introduction to solar imaging, some of the equipment and techniques involved used by amateur astronomers, with some examples from my own work.

Bob Hamers is a professor of chemistry at UW-Madison with a longstanding interest in space and astronomy. At UW his research centers on using light and electrons to characterize solids and nanomaterials...