Some Recent Results in Quiescent Prominence Spectrometry

Abstract

This paper describes some recent results of our quiescent prominence spectrometry program at the Mees Solar Observatory on Haleakala. The observations were made with the 25 cm coronagraph/coudé spectrograph system using a silicon vidicon detector. This detector consists of 500 contiguous channels covering approximately 6 or 80 Å, depending on the grating used. The instrument is interfaced to the Observatory’s PDP 11/45 computer system, and has the important advantages of wide spectral response, linearity and signal-averaging with real-time display. Its principal drawback is the relatively small target size. For the present work, the aperture was about 3″ × 5″. Absolute intensity calibrations were made by measuring quiet regions near sun center.