Solar telescope
Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope in the Sacramento Mountains
Solar telescopes are special astronomical telescopes for observing phenomena in the so-called solar atmosphere . These include:
- the photosphere ( Greek: sphere of light) - the top 300 km of the sun's surface from which most of the energy (as light, UV and infrared ) is radiated, but which also emits solar gas in the form of
- the less luminous chromosphere above the photosphere
- the transition layer
- and the hot but extremely thin solar corona respectively
- their interactions with the solar wind .
Special telescopes for observing these regions of the sun are:
- Tower telescopes (solar towers), on the platform of which the coelostat (a rotating mirror system ) directs the sunlight downwards. In the focus of the lens one can observe optically or photographically , measure the spectra of individual sun layers or sunspots , etc.
- Coronograph - an instrument used to measure the internal corona . The corona by far the radiant sunlight by a cone diaphragm and special filters mirrored away, creating a kind of artificial solar eclipse occurs.
- Spectroheliograph - for obtaining images of the sun in a narrow spectral range . A certain wavelength is filtered out of the spectrum through an optical slit, the monochromator . Moving the gap over the solar image, is obtained by means of a photodetector a scan of the sun in the required "color" or layer depth.
- H-alpha telescope - for observing the sun in the light of ionized hydrogen at 656.28 nm , the so-called H-alpha spectral line
For visual observation of the sun and its matter - eruptions are also used:
- Spectrohelioscope, which works similarly to the spectroheliograph
- Protuberances - a spectroscope that also scans the sun and its expelled filaments
- Helioscope in which panes of glass and prisms dampen the sunlight.
Other instruments:
- Magnetograph for measuring solar magnetic fields using the Zeeman effect and recording them in magnetograms
- Bolometer to measure total radiation and solar constants
- Radio heliograph for detailed examinations of the solar atmosphere using special interferometers
Well-known solar telescopes
- McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope (Arizona).
- " Gregor " on Tenerife (put into operation in May 2012; since then the largest in Europe)
- Sunrise (telescope) - on a helium balloon. Test drive 2007, first drive 2009.
Web links
- Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics
- GREGOR project - construction of the world's largest solar telescope
- Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope nso.edu, accessed March 8, 2013
- Big Bear Solar Observatory - solar observatory