The Lowell Observatory Solar Telescope: observing the sun as an exoplanet host star with the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph

Author(s):  
Joe Llama
Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Luca Giovannelli ◽  
Francesco Berrilli ◽  
Daniele Calchetti ◽  
Dario Del Moro ◽  
Giorgio Viavattene ◽  
...  

By the continuous multi-line observation of the solar atmosphere, it is possible to infer the magnetic and dynamical status of the Sun. This activity is essential to identify the possible precursors of space weather events, such as flare or coronal mass ejections. We describe the design and assembly of TSST (Tor Vergata Synoptic Solar Telescope), a robotic synoptic telescope currently composed of two main full-disk instruments, a Hα telescope and a Potassium (KI D1) magneto-optical filter (MOF)-based telescope operating at 769.9 nm. TSST is designed to be later upgraded with a second MOF channel. This paper describes the TSST concepts and presents the first light observation carried out in February 2020. We show that TSST is a low-cost robotic facility able to achieve the necessary data for the study of precursors of space weather events (using the magnetic and velocity maps by the MOF telescope) and fast flare detection (by the Hα telescope) to support Space Weather investigation and services.


Author(s):  
Riccardo U. Claudi ◽  
Adriano Ghedina ◽  
Emanuele Pace ◽  
Anna Maria Di Giorgio ◽  
Valentina D'Orazi ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Philip Judge

Solar physics is a historically data-starved science, but about to becomes less so. ‘The future of solar physics’ looks at new facilities, either online or about to come online, such as the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Maui. This aims to see, through measurements of coronal magnetic fields and plasma, how the Sun’s magnetic fields generate flares, coronal mass ejections, and the solar wind. Other major missions include NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and the European Solar Orbiter mission, spacecraft intended to orbit the Sun in new ways and from different viewpoints on Earth. Supported by increasingly powerful computers, these missions are ushering in a new era.


2017 ◽  
Vol 06 (02) ◽  
pp. 1740007 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lecinski ◽  
G. Card ◽  
M. Knölker ◽  
B. Hardy

With its 1[Formula: see text]m aperture, the Sunrise Balloon-Borne Stratospheric Solar Observatory was the largest space-based solar telescope. It was designed to study the magneto-convective processes of the sun at resolutions higher than 100[Formula: see text]km and the payload took data during a flight from June 12 to June 17, 2013. To achieve its science requirements, the telescope had to point to an accuracy of 26[Formula: see text] for extended periods of time. Pointing of the instrument was effected by the Sunrise Pointing System (PS). The PS used measurements provided by a Lockheed Intermediate Sun Sensor (LISS) and passed the data through a cascade of up to four digital filters to calculate the best voltages to drive the azimuthal and elevation motors. All filter settings could be modified in flight to adapt to changing conditions. Using this design, the PS met its requirements, pointing the instrument with an accuracy better than 26[Formula: see text] for 60% of the flight and for continuous time periods of up to 99[Formula: see text]min. In this paper, we detail the design and performance of the PS during the 2013 flight.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S354) ◽  
pp. 38-41
Author(s):  
Dominik Utz ◽  
Christoph Kuckein ◽  
Jose Iván Campos Rozo ◽  
Sergio Javier González Manrique ◽  
Horst Balthasar ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Sun is our dynamic host star due to its magnetic fields causing plentiful of activity in its atmosphere. From high energetic flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) to lower energetic phenomena such as jets and fibrils. Thus, it is of crucial importance to learn about formation and evolution of solar magnetic fields. These fields cover a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, starting on the larger end with active regions harbouring complex sunspots, via isolated pores, down to the smallest yet resolved elements – so-called magnetic bright points (MBPs). Here, we revisit the various manifestations of solar magnetic fields by the largest European solar telescope in operation, the 1.5-meter GREGOR telescope. We show images from the High-resolution Fast Imager (HiFI) and spectropolarimetric data from the GREGOR Infrared Spectrograph (GRIS). Besides, we outline resolved convective features inside the larger structures – so-called light-bridges occurring on large to mid-sized scales.


2011 ◽  
Vol 328-330 ◽  
pp. 300-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Li ◽  
Hu Li Shi ◽  
Zhi Ping Chen

The proposed Chinese Space Solar Telescope (SST) is the first large aperture space telescope in China designed to observe the sun. With an effective aperture of Φ1m, the primary mirror faces the sun directly, which receives more than 1000W heat that will lead to unacceptable thermal distortion in such severe thermal condition. Therefore, the temperature field of SST, which is changing with its orbital position, is critical in its design. In this paper, an analysis of the thermal flux in the SST is presented firstly. Further more, the heat flux of orbit is calculated with the thermal softerware NEVADA (Net Energy Verification And Determination Analyzer) according to the orbit parameters of SST. The thermal design software SINDA/G (System Improved Numerical Differencing Analyzer/Gaski), the radiation analysis software NEVADA and the finite element analysis software MSC.Patran are used to simulate the temperature field of the SST. In the end, the temperature distribution of the primary mirror is calculated. The temperature level of the primary mirror indicates that the system can achieve high spatial resolution with 0.1″~0.15″. It also means that the thermal control design is effective. The optical requirements to the SST thermal control are met. The thoughts and methods of the thermal analysis are also useful for similar optical telescopes designed for solar observation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S320) ◽  
pp. 436-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Li

AbstractThe Lyman-α (Lyα) Solar Telescope (LST) is one of the payloads for the proposed Space-Borne Advanced Solar Observatory (ASO-S). LST consists of a Solar Disk Imager (SDI) with a field-of-view (FOV) of 1.2 R⊙ (R⊙ = solar radius), a Solar Corona Imager (SCI) with an FOV of 1.1 - 2.5 R⊙, and a full-disk White-light Solar Telescope (WST) with the same FOV as the SDI, which also serves as the guiding telescope. The SCI is designed to work in the Lyα (121.6 nm) waveband and white-light (for polarization brightness observation), while the SDI will work in the Lyα waveband only. The WST works in both visible (for guide) and ultraviolet (for science) broadband. The LST will observe the Sun from disk-center up to 2.5 R⊙ for both solar flares and coronal mass ejections with high tempo-spatial resolution


1971 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 37-41
Author(s):  
Richard B. Dunn

The Vacuum Solar Telescope has been described elsewhere by Dunn (1964, 1969). A brief summary of its characteristics is included here as background for discussing the computer control of this instrument.This telescope is altazimuth in design. Image rotation is accomplished by rotating the inner tube structure together with all the auxiliary instruments. Azimuth and elevation torque motors drive the two mirrors at the top of the tower to track the sun automatically. The inputtothe servo is derived from a photoelectric guider. When clouds intervene, the servos are switched from the photoelectric guider to an electromechanical coordinate converter that also generates the signal for the rotation of the table. An elaborate 25: 1 synchro system connects the mirror servos to the coordinate converter.


1994 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 370-372
Author(s):  
Sergio R. Restaino ◽  
Richard R. Radick ◽  
Gary C. Loos

We present the results of a pupil masking experiment using the Sun as a source. The goal of the experiment was a first proof of concept validation for Fizeau interferometric beam combination using a source that fills the field of view of the telescope. Phase diversity techniques are employed to record the phasing errors in the mask required to construct the optical transfer function (OTF) and are used to deconvolve the dirty images.


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