National Solar Observatory
I mentioned in a previous blog entry that I had compared one of my solar images to the images captured by the National Solar Observatory in El Tiede, Spain and I shared comparison images. While I was lying in bed last night, I got to thinking that perhaps I should provide more information about the National Solar Observatory. It seems silly to mention this and not explain it a bit. The National Solar Observatory (NSO) is a research and development program funded by the US. Generally speaking, its purpose is to advance our knowledge of the physics of our sun. The NSO isn't actually one physical observatory but a network of observatories around the globe that are constantly collecting data on our sun. In yesterday's blog entry, I compared my quick and dirty Hydrogen alpha image to the Hydrogen alpha image captured by the NSO Integrated Synoptic Program's Observatory in El Tiede, Spain. This NSO Integrated Synoptic Program (NISP) consists of six observing systems around