Tower telescope

Vacuum tower telescope for observing the sun on Tenerife

Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope in the Sacramento Mountains

A tower telescope is a very long focal length telescope whose tube is located in a tower. Tower telescopes are mainly used to study the sun . For long focal lengths, they offer a more cost-effective alternative to alignable telescopes.

Instead of moving the entire telescope with tower telescopes, tracking to the observation object is usually done by a coelostat . In tower telescopes and other solar telescopes , the tube is often evacuated in order to reduce image interference from heated air.

Examples

• Swedish 1 m solar telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory .
• Vacuum tower telescope (VTT) in the Teide Observatory on Tenerife , part of the Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics .
• Dunn Solar Telescope (DST) on Sacramento Peak , USA.
• Einstein Tower in Potsdam.
• Meudon solar observation tower .
• 60-foot and 150-foot tower telescopes at Mount Wilson Observatory , USA.

See also: Astronomical Tower

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope nso.edu, accessed March 8, 2013