Hinode and STEREO – 27th March 2008
Hinode and STEREO – 27th March 2008

Hinode and STEREO – 27th March 2008

The Society’s first meeting at the new High Elms Nature Centre was the occasion of Lucie Green’s talk about the Latest Results from the Hinode and STEREO Space Missions. She began by explaining the structure of the Sun and went on to describe the various phenomena that could be observed on it. Having described sunspots, filaments, prominences, flares, and coronal mass ejections, she then showed us images from Hinode and STEREO. The Hinode mission carries three main cameras to give a wide spectral view of the Sun from the visible all the way to X-rays. It produces a much more complete image of the Sun’s observable regions with excellent detail of the magnetic fields. The STEREO mission is a pair of spacecraft which have been observing the Sun from different directions. This has produced some fine views which we were able to view using stereo glasses to get a most unusual impression of the Sun’s activity. Some of the images and videos may be found on the STEREO website .