Current Images Of The Sun: These images represent data from Mauna Loa Solar Observatory instruments.

HAO General Inquiries: 303-497-2188

See our HAO Annual Report for 2012 (LINK).

Facebook button

White Light Corona image
White Light Corona
(700-950 nm)
Hydrogen Alpha Disk image
Hydrogen Alpha Disk
(656.3 nm)
Helium I Line image
Helium I Line
(1083 nm)
Calcium II K Line image
Calcium II K Line
(393 nm)

Staff News: HAO eclipse team in Australia! A persistent overcast had a group of HAO staff biting their nails just after dawn on November 14. Stationed on a beach at Palm Cove, Queensland, they were ready to test their ambitious vision of creating unprecedented, crowdsourced footage of an eclipse—but it wasn't clear that the weather would cooperate. Read More »

  • Alfvénic waves
    1) Waves Might Heat Solar Atmosphere

    3 July 2012:
    A team of astronomers, including
    Scott McIntosh, discovered Alfvénic waves permeate both the corona and the transition zone between the corona and the chromosphere. (Photo courtesy NASA.)
    Read More »

  • Secrets of the Sun
    2) Secrets of the Sun

    25 April 2012:
    Our own Sarah Gibson and Scott McIntosh are among the solar researchers featured in a episode of the PBS series NOVA. "Secrets of the Sun".
    Read More »

  • FPI in Boulder
    3) Inauguration of the Boulder Fabry-Perot Interferometer upper-atmosphere wind observation

    16 March 2012:
    A Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) was installed at NCAR Marshall Field, just to the south-east of Boulder, to observe thermospheric and mesospheric winds.
    Read More »

  • tying the Sun together
    4) Tying the Sun together

    6 February 2012:
    HAO solar science is featured in a article on NCAR/UCAR "AtmosNews". The article profiles the efforts to study and connect the solar dynamo and magnetic flux emergence by Mark Miesch and colleagues.
    Read More »

  • Solar Cycles
    5) Identifying the Beginnings and Ends of Solar Cycles

    4 January 2012:
    HAO scientist's Mausumi Dikpati, Peter Gilman, Giuliana de Toma, and UCLA professor Roger Ulrich find that the latitude at which plasma sinking occurs is very important.
    Read More »