There's no lack of photons, how well could a telescope resolve Sun spots and other surface features of the Sun? How would a high resolution Solar (space) telescope differ from for example Hubble which avoids the Sun by a 50° angle or so?

  • $\begingroup$ On the surface (through the daytime atmosphere), or in space? $\endgroup$ – uhoh Nov 26 '17 at 2:01
  • $\begingroup$ Info on a space telescope that look at the Sun is readily available. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinode $\endgroup$ – Rob Jeffries Nov 26 '17 at 11:42

Solar telescopes typically have filters to reduce the amount of light reaching their detector. Depending on their purpose they may use, for example, neutral density filters to reduce the amount of light to a level where they can resolve details without blocking any of the visible spectrum, hydrogen alpha filters to observe the Sun at a wavelength of 656 nanometres for observing features in the Sun's atmosphere such as solar prominences and the chromosphere, or blocking the solar disc to observe the Sun's corona, flares and other ejecta.

Hubble, on the other hand, is designed with a very different purpose in mind such as taking long-exposure images to obtain the deep- and ultra-deep field full spectrum images. It avoids the Sun as even a very short exposure to the Sun would damage its instruments.

  • $\begingroup$ True, but doesn't really answer the question. $\endgroup$ – Trip Space-Parasite Dec 1 '17 at 20:39
  • $\begingroup$ How would a solar telescope differ from e.g. Hubble? Easier to criticise in one line than to write an answer? $\endgroup$ – Mick Dec 2 '17 at 2:14

Your Answer

