The Greiner Solar Observatory houses two solar telescopes mounted on a imaging platform of Doc Greiner's design. The two telescopes are mounted on a custom saddle plate which is mounted on a Meade LX200 fork structure. The mount is highly customized and driven by proprietary software. The entire mount with its telescopes is mounted on a rising pier and custom carriage. The entire equipment package is controlled by a computer running the proprietary software package. The telescope package and mounting system is designed specifically for solar imaging by Dr. R. A. Greiner. It can be remotely controlled as well.
The Hydrogen alpha
(Ha) telescope in the Greiner Solar Observatory consists of Takahashi FS102
telescope fitted with a Coronado 90 mm etalon at the objective and a
second internal Coronado etalon which works with the front etalon to give
a bandwidth of 0.5 Angstrom. The final filter is a BF30 which is
adjusted to select the first order image created by the dual etalon
filters. The image is formed by the spectral emission of Hydrogen at 656.3
nm. The resultant telescope has a focal length of 820 mm. It
is operated at this focal length or alternately with the Takahashi 1.6
focal extender. The very narrow band width of this filter set gives
extremely fine detail of the floculi, sunspots and prominences on the sun.
The scope is provided with a Lumenera SKYnyx 2-2 camera with a 2.0
megapixel CCD. This camera will take up to 12 frames per second at
full 1616 x 1232 resolution.
The red light of Ha with a wavelength of 656.3 nm is a very prominent
feature in the solar light spectrum since hydrogen makes up 90% by weight
of the outer layers of the sun. This wavelength is especially important
for imaging the lower chromosphere. The lower chromosphere is the coolest
layer in the sun's atmosphere. The Ha image of the sun is very useful in
predicting eruptions. The bright regions around sunspots, called plages,
and brilliant solar flares are easily seen at this wavelength. Filaments,
vivid string-like regions, and sunspots, large blotches on the solar
surface, appear dark. Filaments are common sources of eruptions.
Filaments on the solar limb appear bright against the blackness of space
and are called prominences.
The Calcium line telescope is a Coronado Solar Max 70 Calcium K Solar Telescope. It has a focal length of 400 mm and is provided with a 15 mm final filter. The bandwidth of the filter is 2 nanometers. This line is in the far violet part of the solar spectrum. The telescope is provided with a Lumenera 2-2 camera as described above.
The K-line of Calcium (CaK) filter isolates a layer of the Sun that is below and slightly cooler than the layer viewed with a Ha filter. The transmission line is centered in the ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum in a broad region centered at 393.3 nm. Given that this telescope has half the focal length of its big brother, it gives an image of the entire solar disk with the camera being used. Calcium makes up only 0.008 percent of the sun's mass, compared with hydrogen's 90 percent. The magnificent super granulation cells that gather and strengthen in this layer of the chromosphere are visible. These massive cells carry hot gas up to the surface, sideways, and back down again. This filter reveals bright areas on the disk called flocculi especially around sunspots sometimes even before the spot itself develops.
With reference to the spectrum below, we can see that the Calcium light telescope passes the K line at the very far left of the visible spectrum. The light is violet to the eye. The Ha telescope passes the bright red spectral line which is conventionally called the C line in the visible spectrum.
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