Supervisual Photography

Visual Eclipse
Supervisual Eclipse
Visual Image
Supervisual Image
 

 

One of the greatest challenges of photographing the cosmos — and one of its greatest rewards — is to image objects that are difficult or impossible to see with just our eyes. Most astronomical objects are too dim, too far away, or too bright for us to visualize or photograph easily; and to meet these challenges, astronomers and imaging scientists have developed sophisticated techniques and technologies that extend photography well beyond the normal limits of human vision. This kind of photography I call supervisual photography.

To illustrate the power of supervisual photography, the slider above displays two of my images of the 2017 solar eclipse. The Visual Image closely resembles how the eclipse appeared to the eye during totality, while the Supervisual Image reveals details of the lunar surface and the solar corona that were present during totality but were far too dim to see. It’s important to note that the colors are natural and nothing was added or altered to create this extraordinary photo. Supervisual imaging techniques were applied during imaging and processing to tease out these existing features.

Supervisual imaging methods can also help bring to light deep-sky objects that are too dim to see at all. Such images can take hours or days to shoot before processing them. The resulting photos, however, are well worth the effort, revealing a kaleidoscope of colorful stars and vibrant, neon-like nebulae more breathtaking than anything that could be gleaned by the human eye through even the largest of telescopes.

Supervisual photography captures the jaw-dropping subtleties of the world that exists beyond our vision, a spectacular world that we otherwise could never see to appreciate.

2017 Solar Eclipse, Take Two

Eclipse 2017 Corona, HDR Print, Brighter, Reduced

This high-dynamic-range image showcases the solar corona and the Moon during The Great American Eclipse of 2017.

Click for High-Quality Prints

  • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
  • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
  • Autoguiding: No
  • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5); no solar filter during totality
  • Camera: Canon 60Da
  • Light Frame(s): 6 frames from 1/500 sec to 1 sec
  • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
  • Exposure Time(s): 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 sec, and 1 sec
  • ISO: 100
  • Processing: Photoshop CC using HDR Pro
  • Imaging Location: Prairie City, Ore.
  • Click for high-quality prints

This high-dynamic-range image of the 2017 solar eclipse, originally posted August 25, 2017, has been reprocessed to reveal more detail of the solar corona and the Moon.

Super-heated plasma escaping from the sun creates the solar corona and becomes the solar wind that blows through our solar system at a million miles per hour. The charged particles that make up the coronal plasma follow the magnetic field lines of the sun and form streamers in the corona, like iron filings around a magnet.

Sunlight reflecting from Earth during the eclipse illuminates the Moon and bounces back to Earth as “earthshine.” Because of this earthshine, lunar features such as the “seas” and several large craters (Tycho, Copernicus, etc.) can be imaged during totality. The blue color of the Moon comes from our blue sky.

Montage of 2017 Solar Eclipse

2017 Solar Eclipse Montage

Montage of 2017 Solar Eclipse

  • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
  • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
  • Autoguiding: No
  • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5)
  • Camera: Canon 60Da
  • Light Frames: Six single frames of partial phases and six subframes of total phase
  • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
  • Exposure Time(s): Partial phases = 1/5000 s; total phase = 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 & 1 s
  • ISO: 100
  • Processing: Photoshop CC
  • Imaging Location: Prairie City, Ore.

A montage of images taken during the 2017 solar eclipse represents about two hours of the event from just after first contact (left) to just before fourth contact (right). As the moon’s silhouette moves from right to left across the solar disk, small sunspots are first masked and then unmasked. (To see the sunspots, click on thumbnail for a higher-resolution image.)

During totality, and only during totality, the sun’s faint corona becomes visible. Lunar features also appear during totality due to earthshine.

2017 Solar Eclipse: Partial Phase I

2017 Solar Eclipse: Partial Phase I

Before totality, the Moon gobbles up a string of sunspots along the solar equator as it moves from right to left in this image.

  • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
  • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
  • Autoguiding: No
  • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5); Baader solar filter
  • Camera: Canon 60Da
  • Light Frame(s): Single, 1/5000-sec exposure
  • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
  • Exposure Time: 1/5000 sec
  • ISO: 100
  • Processing: Photoshop CC
  • Imaging Location: Prairie City, Ore.

Before totality, the Moon slowly swallows up a string of sunspots along the solar equator during the 2017 solar eclipse.

2017 Solar Eclipse: The Solar Corona

High-Dynamic-Range Image of Solar Corona

A high-dynamic-range image showcases the solar corona and the Moon during The Great American Eclipse of 2017.

  • Telescope: Stellarvue SVA130T-IS
  • Mount: Losmandy G-11 with Gemini 2 controller
  • Autoguiding: No
  • Optical Configuration: 0.72x field flattener & reducer (f/5); no solar filter during totality
  • Camera: Canon 60Da
  • Light Frame(s): 6 frames from 1/500 sec to 1 sec
  • Calibration: None (no darks, no flats, no biases)
  • Exposure Time(s): 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30 sec, and 1 sec
  • ISO: 100
  • Processing: Photoshop CC using HDR Pro
  • Imaging Location: Prairie City, Ore.

This high-dynamic-range image reveals many lunar features along with the detailed structure of the solar corona during The Great American Eclipse of 2017. Super-heated plasma escaping from the sun creates the solar corona and becomes the solar wind that blows through our solar system at a million miles per hour. The charged particles that make up the coronal plasma follow the magnetic field lines of the sun and form streamers in the corona, like iron filings around a magnet. In this image, north is up, south is down, east is left, and west is right.

Sunlight reflecting from our Earth during the eclipse illuminates the Moon and bounces back to Earth as “earthshine.” Because of this earthshine, lunar features such as the “seas” and several large craters (Tycho, Copernicus, etc.) can be imaged during totality. The blue color of the Moon comes from our blue sky.