Thank you for looking at this image and for your words of appreciation, it truly was a fierce day under the Brisbane Sun today!
The seeing was a little mixed, with persistent undulating waves and high frequency jitters requiring me to pause/re-start the recording to avoid the really poor stuff. Although I have enjoyed better seeing where the solar granules were easily resolved, today, the wonders of AutoStakkert helped pull the nice details out of tricky conditions. Seeing really is king for these hi-res images.
From various sources on the internet, I understand that the granules visible in this image lie on the photosphere of the Sun and are caused by convection currents of plasma within the Sun's convective zone. The rising part of the granules is located in the centre where the plasma is hotter. The outer edge of the granules is darker due to the cooler descending plasma.
A typical granule has a diameter on the order of 1,000 kilometres and lasts 8 to 20 minutes before dissipating. At any one time, the Sun's surface is covered by about 4 million granules. The flow within the granules can reach supersonic speeds of more than 7 km/s (15,000 mph) and produce sonic "booms" and other noise that generates waves on the Sun's surface.
Cheers
Dennis
Seriously though, these are just two types of views. White light and Ha are completely different parts of the suns atmosphere. Hence why each has its merits.
