The solar-image acquisition system at Tor Vergata university

Summary We describe an image acquisition system realized as a part of an apparatus built in collaboration with the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory in Florence designed to record high-spectral-resolution solar images in the visible part of the spectrum. The system is based on a 512×512 Thomson CCD type THX31159 and on 486 CPU personal computer running under MS-DOS. The electronics for driving the sensor and for the amplification and conditioning of the video signal has been designed and built in the laboratory while the signal A/D conversion and image presentation is performed using commercial boards.