A breathtaking eclipse

By Amy Barton on

We were blown away by this stunning image, beautifully illuminating solar activity behind the moon. It was kindly supplied to us by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Adalbert Ding of the Institut für Technische Physik (ITP), and the Institut für Optik und Atomare Physik, Berlin.
Here’s what Adi said about this capture:-

The image is composed of 3 separate pictures:-
• The electron density (blueish, so called white light picture)
• The emission of Fe XIV (530.3nm: Fe 13+; green areas), depicting areas with temperatures around 1.8 MK
• The – NIR – emission of FeXI (789.2 nm: Fe 10+; red areas approx. 1 MK)

The reddish parts top and bottom of the moon are the magnetic north and south pole of the Sun, the field lines moving nearly linearly away from the Sun in these regions while the magnetic field lines connected to the Fe XIV seem to be mostly closed loops. The start of the solar wind can be easily seen moving away in different directions.

The image of Fe XIV had been taken with the ATIK 314, the image of  Fe XI with ATIK 414, both in connection with narrow band filters, the white light pictures with a CANON Mark III full frame.

Picture credit: © S. Habbal, M. Druckmueller, J. Judson, A. Ding and the solar Sherpas

Thank you so much for sharing this amazing image with us.