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MikeBu
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Reged: 12/04/07
Posts: 122
Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view
      04/24/08 04:55 PM

I was curious so I crunched some numbers on the solar spectrum.

Bandwidth………......………...…..………Power………………..........Spectrum
200nM - 10,000nM……………...…...…1.37 kW/sq.M.............(IR - UV)
380nM – 750nM……………………..........531 W/sq.M.............(Visible)
655.8nM – 656.8nM………...……...……1.12 W/sq.M.............(1.0 nM Red around H-alpha)
656.2050nM – 656.3550nM...….…..75.2mW/sq.M.............(1.50 Angstrom, H-alpha)
656.2300nM – 656.3300nM...….…..35.7mW/sq.M.............(1.00 Angstrom, H-alpha)
656.2425nM – 656.3175nM...….…..22.9mW/sq.M.............(0.75 Angstrom, H-alpha)
656.2455nM – 656.3050nM...….…..14.1mW/sq.M.............(0.50 Angstrom, H-alpha)

The minimum at H-alpha is approx. 16.04% the local maximum (i.e. Plank curve). At 0.75 and 0.50 Angstroms the ratio of bandwidths is close to the ratio of the powers indicating the spectral density is getting pretty flat.

Comparing the 1nM (10 Angstrom) band to the 1.00 Angstrom band the 1nM band has 31.4 times the light, more than enough to mask the H-alpha emission spectrum. Not that I didn’t believe everyone here, but just to get some perspective.

For a 100mm scope aperture with no white filter, the 1nM filter will need to dissipate 10.8 Watts. The level through just the 1nM filter would still be 8.8mW, brighter than looking into a red laser pointer. Even if the level of light through a nighttime filter was eye safe without a white filter it probably couldn’t dissipate the power and would fail in a very unpleasant way.

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Entire thread
Subject Posted by Posted on
* Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar viewing? BYoesle 04/16/08 04:59 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar viewing? Mark Strollo   05/31/08 02:58 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view mischief   08/19/08 06:55 PM
. * Re: Using a Nigh H-Alpha filter for Solar viewing? colinsk   05/31/08 06:34 PM
. * Re: Using a Nigh H-Alpha filter for Solar viewing? moron392   07/16/08 10:13 AM
. * Re: Using a Nigh H-Alpha filter for Solar viewing? colinsk   07/31/08 12:11 AM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view David Knisely   04/16/08 09:40 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view BYoesle   04/17/08 01:53 AM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view David Knisely   04/19/08 01:58 AM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view Ralph Marantino   04/18/08 10:06 AM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view MikeBu   04/19/08 05:13 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view AKP   04/23/08 10:34 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view David Knisely   04/23/08 11:16 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view AKP   04/23/08 11:52 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view MikeBu   04/24/08 04:55 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view DesertRat   04/26/08 06:25 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view colinsk   04/28/08 10:41 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view colinsk   04/24/08 08:26 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view BYoesle   04/25/08 07:57 AM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view MikeBu   04/25/08 02:32 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view colinsk   04/25/08 02:43 PM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view colinsk   04/26/08 01:59 AM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view blackhaz   04/18/08 10:11 AM
. * Re: Using a Nightime H-Alpha filter for Solar view colinsk   04/18/08 10:30 AM

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