The Solar Dome : First light of the CCD camera in H-alpha

Tuesday, 21th of May, 2002.

After so many delays, here it is! The first numerical solar image in H-alpha light taken with the ROB solar telescope. Over the last two weeks, the construction work proceeded fairly smoothly thanks to Mr. Renders for mechanical work and to Mr. Dufond for all the rest. After a last-minute surprise due to a parasitic transmittance of the Lyot filter in the near-infrared, this problem was temporarily fixed with the material at hand. The chromospheric image shown here is a simple raw colorized image. Even the orientation was not put right yet. This is an initial but very encouraging attempt. Pointing and focusing adjustements must still be done. Some mechanical parts must also be manufactured to attach the IR blocking filter as well as a focal reducer in white-light. I hope that this will be done soon and that we will enter the regular image "production" phase. Enjoy! Frédéric Clette

(Instrument design: F. Clette; control software: N. Debroux, F. El Hassouni, J. Nutin)