1974 Skylab / Apollo Telescope Mount X-Ray Photograph of the Sun

This is an x-ray photo of the Sun taken by the Skylab Apollo Telescope Mount on January 29, 1974. It illustrates the intensity of x-rays emitted from a specific portion of the Sun. Colors coded by the MSFC/S-056 Image Data Processing System (IDAPS) represent maximum intensity x-rays (white/purple), medium intensity x-rays (green/orange) and minimum intensity x-rays (red).

Skylab and the Apollo Telescope Mount

Skylab, launched on May 14, 1973, was the first space station of the United States. Three astronaut crews occupied Skylab, for a total of twenty-four weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. The Apollo Space Telescope, a part of Skylab, was a crewed solar observatory. The telescope was operated manually producing numerous photographs. The telescope mount was a solar instrument cluster fixed on a specific region of the Sun. It had several instruments, including an x-ray telescope. The Apollo Telescope Mount provided over 27,000 exposures of the Sun. Unfortunately, Skylab's orbit eventually deteriorated, and as there was no way to boost it back into orbit (the Space Shuttle was not ready until 1981), Skylab disintegrated in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979.

Provenance - Richard Tousey

This photograph came from the estate of Richard Tousey (May 18, 1908 - April 15, 1997), an American astronomer and solar research pioneer. Tousey joined the Naval Research Laboratory in 1941, at the invitation of Director of Research E. O. Hulburt. In 1945, while working at the Naval Research Laboratory, Tousey and his colleagues became the first to photograph the Sun in the ultraviolet spectrum using captured V-2 rockets. Decades later, while still at the Naval Research Laboratory, Tousey became the principal investigator for four solar experiments to be conducted aboard Skylab. Tousey was quoted in 1977 as saying, 'the ATM (Apollo Telescope Mount) observations alone were of extraordinary value, and in quantity they were staggering'. Tousey retired from the Naval Research Laboratory in 1978, but remained involved as a consultant, particularly with analyzing Skylab data.

Publication History and Census

This photograph was likely developed by NASA teams in 1974. We have been unable to locate any other examples of this, or other Skylab image on the market.