Sun Spotter for Mac- Quickly access images of the Sun on the SOHO web site
The SOHO web site makes available images taken by the SOHO probe observing the Sun. Sun Spotter provides a quick way to Get at a variety of these images. The eight buttons running down from the top left are labelled according to the type of solar image they download. The first three are taken by the Michelson Doppler Imager. The Continuum and Sunspot images correspond quite closely to what you will see looking through a small telescope equipped with an appropriate solar filter (it is very dangerous to look directly at the Sun without a solar filter). The Magnetogram image shows the magnetic field, the black and white speckles indicating opposite polarities.
The EIT or Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope images are taken at four different wavelengths, 171, 195, 284, and 304 Angstroms respectively, and essentially show different Layers of the Sun at different temperatures. The LASCO or Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph blocks out the actual disc of the Sun and images the corona instead. The white circle at the centre of these images is an outline of the Sun, and from that it should be apparent that the C2 image is a narrower field of view than the C3 image.
You can also choose these image options via the Get menu or by using the keyboard Shortcuts listed there. The links menu will take you to a variety of relevant web sites. A button in the main application window also takes you to the SOHO, EIT, LASCO, and MDI web sites depending on the type of image you're viewing at the time.
