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Matt Wilks

@helios_central

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Sharing the beauty hidden in our closest star and our universe.
Images captured and processed by me, sometimes poorly.
#solarimaging #astrophotography

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Another successful solar transit captured! This time of Tiangong - the Chinese Space Station (CSS). This was captured 7/22/2026 with my specialized solar telescope.

Why does the sun look different than you might expect? This is a narrowband view that only lets one specific wavelength of light through (656.28 nm aka Hydrogen-alpha) revealing the beautiful solar chromosphere. With the right equipment, positioning and absolutely perfect timing, you can take pictures of satellites moving directly between you and the sun.

Captured with my usual solar imaging setup:
@luntsolarsystems LS50THa telescope + LS50C
@zwoastro ASI174MM camera
@televueoptics 5x Powermate telecentric barlow
@skywatcherusa SolarQuest mount

#astrophotography #sun #sciencerules #solarimaging #astronomy taken in Vista, California by @helios_central

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2 months ago

Hey @iss - I caught you in front of the sun today! You flew right between AR 4397 and AR 4398 from my perspective down here.

Seeing was below average and it was windy, but I didn't let that stop me. All things considered, I'm happy with how it turned out. The ISS and its solar panels make a beautiful silhouette against the chromosphere of the sun.

Capturing transits is quite tricky, the whole event lasted less than one second.... even less if you factor in my field of view at f/35. But with the right equipment and planning, the elusive transits can be captured for all to see. @luntsolarsystems - you folks make an awesome scope!

Captured with my usual setup:
Telescope - Lunt LS50THa + LS50C
Camera - ZWO ASI174MM + 5x Powermate
Mount - Skywatcher SolarQuest

#luntsolarsystems #hydrogenalpha #solarimaging #astrophotography #internationalspacestation taken in Escondido, California by @helios_central

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6 months ago

I tracked the sun for over an an hour with my solar telescope and was lucky enough to capture a solar flare! It was a tiny, C-class flare (C3 to be exact) from AR 4523, but considering that region which flared is larger than the whole earth.... still an incredible amount of energy released.

First up in the video is the flare, followed up by some images from the same session showing a huge solar filament, some prominences and a few other sunspots. Flares are energetic releases of various wavelengths of light (electromagnetic radiation), the big "flames" are actually masses of ionized hydrogen (plasma) being held / moved by intense magnetic fields.

I am kind of bummed at how much image quality is lost when uploading to IG though.... I can't help but be a little disappointed you all don't see what I see. Oh well, maybe ill make a website to host the full resolution images / videos.

Captured with: Lunt LS50THa + LS50C, ZWO ASI678MM, SkyWatcher SolarQuest.

Processed with: Autostakkert, IMPPG, Affinity Photo, GIMP, DaVinci Resolve.

#solarflare #sunspot #astrophotography #science #astronomy taken in Vista, California by @helios_central

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a month ago

kittens 😸 😸 😸 taken in San Diego, California by @helios_central

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a month ago

ツ

A view of the sun today from the @nasa @solar_dynamics_observatory looking at the 193 Å / 19.3 nm extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelength. Unlike Hydrogen-alpha (656.28 nm) observations which show light emitted by ionized hydrogen, this view shows us light emitted from a couple different flavors of ionized iron. The former reveals the solar chromosphere, the latter reveals the solar corona with temperatures on the order of 1 million+ degrees K.

The "face" we see looking back at us is an arrangement of conveniently positioned darker/cooler regions called coronal holes. These are a major source of high speed solar wind - influencing space weather and contributing to auroras here on earth.

#sun #solar #astronomy #space #sciencerules taken in Space by @helios_central

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a month ago

My highest-resolution solar image to date. No reel antics, no transitions, just some incredibly detailed solar chromosphere for you to enjoy at your own pace. I know IG downscales things pretty aggressively... but I'm hoping you get a sense of what I see when imaging the sun.

Q. Why does the sun look different than you might expect?

A. This is a narrowband image showing 656.28nm exclusively - a wavelength emitted by highly energetic ionized hydrogen (plasma). This reveals the solar chromosphere and see through the blinding brightness of the photosphere, which is what we normally see with eclipse glasses or standard solar filters.

The full disc image is a mosaic comprised of 8 shots, digitally stitched together to form an intricate snapshot of solar activity from 8/19/2026. Shown with inverted luminance and colorized from its original monochome image for maximum detail / contrast.

Scope: Lunt LS50THa + LS50C (doube-stack)
Camera: ZWO ASI678MM
Barlow: TeleVue 2.5x Powermate
Mount: Skywatcher EQ-AL55i Pro
Processing: Autostakkert, IMPPG, Affinity Photo taken in North County, San Diego by @helios_central

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a month ago

Excellent seeing conditions, no clouds and a big bright sun. This is the solar chromosphere, captured in detail with my Lunt H-alpha telescope, yesterday (8/19). I finally got the uneven disc illumination problem figured out, zoomed in with the 2.5x Powermate (for some of the shots) and really put my new ASI678MM through its paces.

I also managed to capture my highest ever resolution image of our sun to date by doing a mosaic with the aforementioned camera / barlow combo. I'll post it as an image by itself (not as a reel) so you can spend some time exploring the chromosphere at your leisure. Even with just 50mm of aperture, the detail you can resolve under the right conditions is amazing. Look out for that later today.

@luntsolarsystems LS50THa + LS50C
@sky_watcher_official EQ-AL55i Pro
@zwoastro ASI678MM

#sun #sunspot #astronomy #solarphotography #astrophotography taken in North County, San Diego by @helios_central

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a month ago

First light with the ASI678MM astro camera! These are from a few days ago. I have some kinks to work out, including tuning for more even illumination across the disc - I thought my flats would take care of it, but obviously not. There was a cool goofy face 🥴 with those sunspot eyes and filament mouth though. The 678 is also a much closer pixel match for my telescope at its native f/7, so I don't always need to do mosaics with my 174 and a Powermate for high-res full disc imaging.

I'm eager to get some high-res moon shots and eventually deep-sky objects / planets with the 678 too. The punishing socal heat wave right now has been putting a damper on my eagerness to go outside, especially during the day.
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Scope: @luntsolarsystems LS50THa + LS50C
Camera: @zwoastro ASI678MM
Mount: @sky_watcher_official SolarQuest

Images captured / processed using Autostakkert, IMPPG and Affinity Photo.

#sunspots #astrophotography #sun #science #space taken in Vista, California by @helios_central

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2 months ago

I'm starting to understand why all you night owl peeps do this... solar astrophotography is my passion, but the solace of being out somewhere remote, at night, away from everything, with just you and your telescope... is actually pretty awesome.

Even though I had to painstakingly and carefully move all my equipment piece-by-piece to the clearing, so as to not aggravate my back, it was incredibly enjoyable. Some mellow tunes, hot chocolate, cozy clothes and the sky - it's hard to beat.

I was waiting for the moon to pop up just beind that house and potentially capture the ejecta plume from the lunar impact on 8/4 at ~2335 PDT. Even though I was not successful, the journey and experience was absolutely worth it. It also served as a chance to test out my new ASI678MM camera. I think I'm going to make a habit of this whole night time astrophotography thing.
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Scope: 12.5" f/5 Portaball
Camera: @zwoastro ASI678MM
Barlow: @televueoptics 2.5x Powermate

#astrophotography #moonlovers #lunarphotography #astronomy #telescope taken in Elfin Forest, California by @helios_central

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2 months ago

Here's a quick compilation of some solar timelapses I've captured over the past few weeks. I've been pretty limited on new captures since my back has been particularly bad, so I pieced together a few from what I already had.

While recording the first clip (6/9/26) I was confused what happened to the active region I was tracking... it wasn't until everything was processed I realized I caught the end of a small flare and the AR which generated it, collapsing. The other clips are from a different day, showing some close ups of ARs, sunspots and prominences dancing about.
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Captured with my usual setup:
@luntsolarsystems LS50THa + LS50C DS module
@skywatcherusa SolarQuest
@zwoastro ASI174MM
@televueoptics 5x Powermate

#solarflare #sunspot #sun #solarimaging #astrophotography taken in Vista, California by @helios_central

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3 months ago

AR 4478 just peeked over the eastern limb (edge) of the sun and is getting quite a bit of hype - so I decided to take a closer look. I also got a nice timelapse of this region which I'll post later on. Our local star never ceases to amaze.

I want to do more direct comparisons of what the regions I image look like at various wavelengths / views. Today we're seeing how the continuum and magnetogram images from the @nasa SDO/HMI look compared to the view from my backyard in glorious Hydrogen-alpha.
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Captured with my usual Ha solar imaging setup:

@luntsolarsystems LS50THa + LS50C DS module
@skywatcherusa SolarQuest
@zwoastro ASI174MM
@televueoptics 5x Powermate

#astrophotography #sun #sunspot #solarimaging #space taken in Vista, California by @helios_central

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3 months ago

ATTENTION! There is a creepy face looking back at us on the sun right now. Just thought everyone should know.

That is all.

#thesun #sunspots #aliens #astrophotography #creepy
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@luntsolarsystems LS50THa + LS50C
@skywatcherusa SolarQuest
@zwoastro ASI174MM
@televueoptics 5x Powermate taken in San Marcos, California by @helios_central

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4 months ago