The telescope diagram is also available. The SMM coronagraph used an arrangement of multiple internal and external occulting discs to block out the direct light from the Sun's photosphere, thereby permitting the faint light of the Sun's outer corona to be recorded. The important characteristics of the coronagraph instrument are presented below. The telescope produced an image of the corona with a square field of view extending from approximately 1.6 solar radii to 4.1 solar radii at the sides and out to just over 6.0 solar radii along the diagonals.
Solar north is in the upper left corner of each image.
Larger versions of the quadrant pictures may be displayed by clicking on any of these images. For the expanded images, North is indicated by an arrow drawn into the center of the occulting disk. In the normal spacecraft orientation, the south polar region of the Sun's corona was obscured by the shadow of a pylon which supports the occulting disk assembly. The intensity of coronal features within about 20 degrees of the center of this pylon shadow was greatly attenuated. To uncover the south polar regions of the corona, the spacecraft was rolled 90 degrees for a single orbit several times each week.