CCD-DRIFT SCAN MEASUREMENTS OF THE SOLAR DIAMETER: METHOD AND FIRST RESULTS

A new method of measuring the solar diameter, combining the advantages of both photoelectric and visual drift-timing techniques, has been put into operation at Observatorio del Teide/Tenerife: a CCD camera is placed in the focus of the Gregory–Coudé Telescope, and a number of two-dimensional pictures are quickly read out during the passage of each of the two opposite limbs of the Sun across the CCD. Accurate time marks are stored in each frame, and image motion due to the Earth's atmosphere is compensated by fitting the limb positions in each series of frames with respect to time and by reducing them to a common reference position. The first results are described and compared with those of visual measurements.