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SUN SPECTRUM INDEX - New

Sun Spectrum
5150 to 5200 Angstroms
Magnesium Triplet Absorption Lines

Magnesium Triplet

 

Summary

The above sunlight spectrum is 100% scale image and the image is cropped for a span of ~50 Angstroms. Thirty-three vertical absorption lines are identified that represents six different elements. As for the data quality the photon noise SNR is very good at 758 SNR and an absorption line FWHM was measured at 0.2930 Angstroms. Measured spectrograph resolution R is 17,607.


Sony NEX-6 Camera Image

The below image is vertically cropped and it is 25% size of the full image size of 4912 x 2760. The Sony NEX-6 camera auto rotate cannot be turned off. Therefore, the full scale image may be rotated when displayed.

The camera is mounted on the spectrograph so that the dark absorption lines are vertical. The focus is soft at both ends of the spectrum and only the center portion of the spectrum image is used for analysis.

Sun Spectrum quarter size


YouTube Videos


Astronomical Spectroscopy

The Sun's visible spectrum is light that is spread out and it is measured by its wavelength and intenstiy. By analyzing the absorption lines in the spectrum we can determine the elements in the Sun's photosphere. Absorption spectroscopy is based on Gustav Kirchhoff's laws of spectroscopy. First, the core of the Sun is hot and it produces light with a continuous spectrum. Secondly, this light with a continuous spectrum travels through parts of Sun's photosphere which have a gas that absorbs light at specific wavelengths depending upon the elements in the gas and the elements atomic energy states. By comparing the absorption spectral lines in a lab on Earth with the Sun's absorption spectral lines we can determine the elements in the Sun.

Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation. Two properties of electromagnetic radiation is frequency f and wavelength λ. The electromagnetic radiation frequency and wavelength are related by the speed of light c = f * λ.

A photon is a quantum of light. The energy and momentum of a photon is equal to the frequency times Planck constant. As a result, different frequencies (different wavelengths) have unique different energies.

The energy levels of atoms are discrete. To move between atomic energy levels requires the addition or removal of the energy difference between the two energy levels. For example, one way to increase the atom's energy level is for the atom to absorb a photon that has the same energy as the energy difference between two energy levels. This is what happens when creating an absorption line. In other words, atoms absorb photon at only specific energy levels that results in the atom's increase in energy.

An emission line is when the atom's energy level decreases and a photon is emitted from the atom with the same energy. In other words, atoms emit photons at only specific energy levels that results in the atom's decrease in energy.

For more information see


Solar Spectrum Charts

The below solar spectrum charts span ~50 Angstroms in the horizontal axis. There are 660 horizontal data points. The red points are the data points from the image pixels and pixels are 0.0788 Angstroms/pixel.

The vertical axis is uncalibrated light intensity and it is the sum of the light intensity in the image columns. The spectrum below the plot is synthesize from the plot data.

Sun Spectrum 5150 to 5200 Angstroms
 


Elements Identified in this Sun Spectrum Plot by Their Absorption Lines

Angstroms, Element, Degrees of Ionization, (Fraunhofer Line)
5150.838 Fe 1
5151.910 Fe 1
5153.230 Cu 1
5154.068 Ti 2
5154.101 Fe 1
5155.762 Ni 1
5159.050 Fe 1
5162.273 Fe 1
5165.407 Fe 1
5166.281 Fe 1
5167.320 Mg 1 (b4)
5168.897 Fe 1 (b3)
5169.033 Fe 2
5171.595 Fe 1
5172.680 Mg 1 (b2)
5173.742 Ti 1
5176.559 Ni 1
5177.233 Fe 1
5178.793 Fe 1
5180.056 Fe 1
5183.600 Mg 1 (b1)
5185.902 Ti 2
5187.914 Fe 1
5188.680 Ti 2
5188.844 Ca 1
5191.455 Fe 1
5192.343 Fe 1
5192.969 Ti 1
5194.941 Fe 1
5195.472 Fe 1
5196.059 Fe 1
5197.577 Fe 1
5198.711 Fe 1

The source for the above elements is KPNO FTS The Sun Disk Averaged 1981 Normalized Flux Solar rest wavelengths from The Interactive Database of Spectral Standard Star Atlases.

Element Symbol and Name

Degrees of Ionization of Atoms

  • 1: Not ionized (neutral atom)
  • 2: Singly ionized (Singly negatively charged ion)
  • 3: Doubly ionized (Doubly negatively charged ion)

The below plot shows the location of the element absorption lines in the Sun's spectrum.

Sun Spectrum 5150 to 5200 Angstroms


Sun Spectrum Image Scaled

The below spectrum image was scaled by IrfanView to match above spectrum plot. The absorption lines in the scaled spectrum image matches the synthesize spectrum from the plot data.

  • RSpec Synthesize settings
    • Color
    • Contrast 0.6

              Sun Spectrum 5150 to 5200 Angstroms
 


Shelyak Instruments Lhires III Solar Spectrum

Equipment

  • YouTube Video: Mg Triplet Solar Spectrum - Lhires III, NEX-6 showing the equipment used to take images of the Sun's spectrum.
  • Shelyak Instruments Lhires III
    • Grating module 2400 gr/mm
    • Sun spectrum Lhires III micrometer settings
    • Model#: SE0082 CCD adapter for Lhires III to mount a QSI ccd camera ('ws' front plate) on a Lhires III. Thread: M42x0.75 backfocus: 34.9 mm
    • Celestron 25mm eyepiece and 2X Barlow in the guider port
      • NOT USED FOR SOLAR IMAGING
      • Used for Moon imaging
    • Model#: PU0024 Photographic Tripod Adapter
  • Optics attached to the Lhires III
    • Baader T2 Extension Tube - 40mm for lens shade
    • Edmund Optics T-Mount Iris Diaphragm Barrel Stock #52-299 to reduce the Sun light.
    • Edmund Optics Achromatic Doublet Lens 40mm Dia. x 160mm FL, MgF2 Coating Stock #32-923
      • I happen to have this lens, so I used it. The lens f/4 is too fast for the Lhires III which is designed for f/10 telescope. When the the iris is closed down to 16 mm diameter (f/10) then the optics is a good match for the Lhires III f/10 design. When the iris is less than 16 mm diameter the spectrum resolution will decrease because the grating is not fully illuminated.
    • Edmund Optics 10mm T-Mount Extension Tube Stock #52-294
    • Baader Varilock T-2 Extension 20-29 mm
    • SCT male to T-mount adapter
    • Agena AstroProducts Blue Fireball # S-SB SCT Thread Spacer Ring with 1" Extension modified to fit on the Lhires III
  • Sony Alpha NEX-6 mirrorless digital camera
    • Imaging Sensor : 16.1MP Exmor APS-C HD CMOS sensor (23.5 X 15.6mm)
    • Still Image Size 16:9 : L: 4912 x 2760
    • Still Image Size 3:2 :4912 x 3264
    • Interchangeable Lens Mount Type: Sony E-mount
    • Sony E-mount to T adapter
    • 5mm T-Mount Extension Tube
  • Astro-Physics Mach1 GoTo mount


Image Processing Software


NEX-6 camera alignment on Lhires III

Camera Alignment

The Sony NEX-6 camera is mounted on the Lhires III so that the absorption lines are vertical. The vertical absorption lines removes the need to tilt the spectrum image during calibration. Tilting the spectrum during calibration reduces the quality of the spectrum.

The zoom screen capture to the right shows white slit guide on a zoomed part of the spectrum image. The dark absorption lines are parallel with the slit guide indicating that the camera alignment on the Lhires III is good.


RSpec Vertical Summing of Image Values

RSpec sums the image vertical pixels to create the intensity data for the spectrum plot. During calibration you select the region for analysis on the image with upper and lower horizontal guides.

The zoom window to the right shows the two yellow horizontal guides. The top guide is at image row 1085 and the bottom guide is at image row 1272. The vertical pixels in the column in between the guides are added to create the spectrum plot intensity for each column. In this case 187 pixels are added.

The maximum pixel value for the Sony NEX-6 is 4095 (the maximum for 12-bit number). 187 pixels times 4095 maximum value equals 765,765 which is the maximum value for the 187 pixels added together. In the spectrum plot the maximum spectrum intensity is 682,744 which indicates that there is not a column of fully saturated pixels in the spectrum plot and in the spectrum image.

The maximum spectrum intensity 682,744 divided 187 equals 3651 which is 89% below the saturated value of 4095. This is another check that the image was not over exposed.


Image Processing Strategy

The Sony NEX-6 camera saves images in JPG and ARW file formats. JPEG format uses lossy compression that causes artifacts and therefore JPG files are not recommend for quantitative analysis. The Sony ARW file is a raw image format that is used for quantitative analysis.

On my Windows 8.1 laptop RSpec uses the Microsoft Camera Raw Decoder but the decoder decodes ARW image file into an 8-bit image and as a result the 12-bit vertical resolution of the ARW file is not being fully used. The solution is to decode ARW file into a 16-bit image and save the image as a FITS image file in order for RSpec to process the image with 32-bit resolution.

Also, for the most part of the spectrum only one of the RGB color channels has the majority of the image data. The other two channels have low intensity and noisy image data. Therefore, it is desirable to use only one of the RGB color channels to create the monochrome FITS image that will be used by RSpec.


Image Processing Work Flow

  • DCRaw decodes the ARW file into a 16-bit TIFF file
    • dcraw.exe -v -H 0 -o 0 -W -q 0 -4 -T -r 1 1 1 1 -g 1 1 -k 0 -S 65536 DSC02572.ARW
    • CDRaw command line parameters
      • -v verbose information about the processing
      • -H 0 clip the highlights if they happen
      • -o 0 use no color management
      • -W do not automatically brighten the image
      • -q 0 bilinear Bayer filter demosaicing
      • -4 create linear 16-bit file
      • -T create TIFF file
      • -r 1 1 1 1 set custom white balance to all ones
      • -g 1 1 use linear 1.0 gamma correction
      • -k 0 set the black point to 0
      • -S 65536 set the white point to 65536, this provides no scaling (The TIF image values range from 0 to 4095 for the Sony NEX-6 12-bit camera.)
  • ImageJ creates the FITS file from the TIF file.
    • Open the 16-bit TIF file and crop image
    • Convert one of the RGB color channels to a monochrome FITS image.
    • Analyze the 16-bit TIF for over exposure
      • Crop image analysis
        • 135 minimum
        • 3956 maximum (needs to be less than 4095)
    • Analyze the 16-bit TIF for background noise
  • RSpec calibrates image and plots spectrum
    • Open the FITS image file
    • Create spectrum plot and synthesize spectrum from the plot data
    • Wavelength calibration
    • Elements documentation
    • Absorption line FWHM measurements
    • Crop spectrum to about 50 Angstroms for best display of the absorption lines with labels.
  • Microsoft Excel analyzes the photon noise
    • Descriptive statistics on the calibrated RSpec DAT file.
    • Analyze photon noise and photo noise SNR


Spectrum Calibration

Spectrum Wavelength Calibration with RSpec V1.7

Wavelength calibration is replacing the image horizontal pixel number with the spectrum wavelength in Angstroms.

  • RSpec non-linear calibration was used with nine reference absorption lines in the image.
  • The nine reference absorption lines were chosen from the Interactive Database of Spectral Standard Star Atlases
  • In this case, the minimum RMS error is using the 1st order curve fit as shown in the Calibration Wizard window to the right.


Sony NEX-6 Camera Image Information

  • Image files: DSC02575.JPG for web display and DSC02572.ARW for spectrum analysis
    • JPG is used with IrfanView to view, crop, resize and select best image for web page.
    • ARW is used with RSpec for spectrum processing
  • Image size: 4912 x 2760
  • Image cropped in center: 660 for ~50 Angstroms
  • DSC02575.JPG exposure: 1/3200 seconds
  • DSC02572.ARW exposure: 1/400 seconds
  • ISO: 100
  • White balance: Daylight
  • Creative Style: Standard
  • Contrast: Normal
  • Saturation: Normal
  • Sharpness: Normal
  • DRO / Auto HDR: Off
  • Manual Focus Assist: On
  • Color space: sRGB
  • Release without lens: Enable
  • Long Exposure NR: On
  • High ISO NR: Normal
  • Custom Key Settings: Soft key B Setting: MF assist


FWHM Analysis of Solar Spectrum

Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) Analysis

FWHM is a measure of the absorption line spectral width and it is used for measuring the resolution of the spectrum. In the screen capture to the right the FWHM of the 5159.050 Fe 1 absorption line is 0.2930 Angstroms as measured by RSpec.

Measured spectrograph resolution R equals the wavelength/FWHM.
Therefore, R = 5,159.0946/0.2930 = 17,607

For more information see


Photon Noise Analysis

Photon noise (shot noise) is the fluctuations in the rate of arrival of light captured by the camera. The standard deviation of the photon noise is equal to the square root of the spectrum intensity. The standard deviation is also equal to the Photon Noise signal-to-nose ratio (SNR). It is desired to have the SNR > 100.
 

The spectrum has 660 data points. The below table shows the mean, median, minimum and maximum of the 660 data points with the standard deviation and SNR. The SNR ranges from 139.42 to 194.77 which is very good.

Spectrum

Standard Deviation & SNR

Mean 573,941

758

Median 617,138

786

Minimum 153,815

392

Maximum 682,744

826


Solar Spectrum Background Image Analysis

Image Background Noise Analysis

ImageJ analysis of the spectrum image background where there is no spectrum light is shown to the right.

The background mean is 146.709 and the background is not zero which means the ARW conversion to TIF worked well and it did not clip the black point. It is normal for CCD cameras to have a small offset above zero.

The background noise standard deviation is 4.393. The background noise of 4.393 is not visibility detectable on the spectrum plot with the vertical intensity scale of 25,000 per vertical division.


Sun Spectrum Data (RSpec V1.7)

  • RSpec V1.7 data DAT file with layout INI file and custom elements DAT file (Sun5150to5200arw2572.zip)
  • The custom elements DAT file is put in the RSpect ElementsCustom directory.
  • The data DAT file with its layout INI file is put in the same directory and is open with RSpec Open Profile.
  • Open RSpec Elements and check the Sun with Angstrom range to display the elements reference lines.
  • The layout INI file has labels for each of the elements reference lines.


Observing Information

  • OBS-Location: Camas, WA USA, 16.6 miles East-North-East from the center of Portland, OR.
  • DATE-Local = 9/14/2014, 11:39:46 PDT.


Links

Sun Spectroscopy Images

Sun Spectroscopy

Sun Spectroscopy Atlases

Sun Fraunhofer Lines

Spectroscopy