The Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on board the
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft built by a European industrial consortium led by Matra Marconi Space (now Airbus Defence and Space) that was launched on a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS lau ...
satellite (SOHO) consists of three solar
coronagraph
A coronagraph is a telescopic attachment designed to block out the direct light from a star so that nearby objects – which otherwise would be hidden in the star's bright glare – can be resolved. Most coronagraphs are intended to view t ...
s with nested fields of view:
* C1 - a
Fabry–Pérot interferometer
In optics, a Fabry–Pérot interferometer (FPI) or etalon is an optical cavity made from two parallel reflecting surfaces (i.e.: thin mirrors). Optical waves can pass through the optical cavity only when they are in resonance with it. It is n ...
coronagraph imaging from 1.1 to 3 solar radii
* C2 - a white light coronagraph imaging from 1.5 to 6 solar radii (orange)
* C3 - a white light coronagraph imaging from 3.7 to 30 solar radii (blue)
The first principal investigator was
Dr. Guenter Brueckner. These coronagraphs monitor the solar corona by using an optical system to create, in effect, an artificial
solar eclipse
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six mon ...
. The white light coronagraphs C2 and C3 produce images of the corona over much of the visible spectrum, while the C1 interferometer produces images of the corona in a number of very narrow visible wavelength bands.
Shutter speed
LASCO C3, the clear coronagraph picture, has a shutter time of about 19 seconds. LASCO C2, the orange picture, has a
shutter speed
In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time that the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light (that is, when the camera's shutter is open) when taking a photograph.
The amount of light that rea ...
of about 26 seconds.
Resolution
The three LASCO cameras have a resolution of one
megapixel
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device.
In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...
. The base unit of LASCO's pictures are blocks of 32x32 pixels. If only one bit is missing, as it could occur due to disturbances, the whole block is gated out.
Disturbances
The LASCO instruments are not the newest. They were built in the late 1980s, when a
digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile devices ...
was something very special. Sometimes disturbances do happen.
There are two kinds that repeatedly occur:
# Blackouts and Whiteouts, in broken lines, circle-like shapes, or over the whole picture. They are caused by the electronics box. There has never been a firmware update, since it was judged as too sensitive changing the flight-software.
# Black and white pixels, occurring in patterns, without pattern or alone. Those "missing blocks" are telemetry dropouts, caused by radio interference or a disturbance in the data transfer to
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...
.
See also
*
Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope
The Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) is an instrument on the SOHO spacecraft used to obtain high-resolution images of the solar corona in the ultraviolet range. The EIT instrument is sensitive to light of four different wavelengths: ...
, another instrument on SOHO
*
SOHO 2333
Comet 96P/Machholz or 96P/Machholz 1 is a short-period sungrazing comet discovered on May 12, 1986, by amateur astronomer Donald Machholz on Loma Prieta peak, in central California using binoculars. On June 6, 1986, 96P/Machholz passed from t ...
References
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External links
Official HomepageDetailed descriptionLatest LASCO C3 pictureLatest LASCO C3 movieLASCO starmapSoho HomepageLASCO C1 Homepage
Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
Space telescopes