List of solar telescopes

This is a list of solar telescopes built in various countries around the world. A solar telescope is a specialized telescope that is used to observe the Sun.

This list contains ground-based professional observatory telescopes at optical wavelengths in chronological order. Solar telescopes often have multiple focal lengths, and use a various combination of mirrors such as coelostats, lenses, and tubes for instruments including spectrographs, cameras, or coronagraphs. There are many types of instruments that have been designed to observe Earth's Sun, for example, in the 20th century solar towers were common.

Existing large solar telescopes

Name/Observatory	Image	Aperture d.	Year(s)	Location	Country(s)	Note
Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST)		400 cm[1]	2019-[2]	Maui, Hawaii, USA	United States	First light early December 2019,[3] first routine scientific observations season planned for 2021[4]
Chinese Large Solar Telescope (CLST)	-	180 cm	2019 -	Western part of China	China	First light 10 December 2019[5]
GREGOR, Teide Observatory		150 cm	2012–	Tenerife, Spain	Germany	[6]
Goode Solar Telescope (GST), Big Bear Solar Observatory		160 cm	2008–	California, United States	United States	Located in a lake.
New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST), Yunnan Astronomical Observatory	-	100 cm	2010–	Yunnan, China	China	100 cm vacuum solar telescope[7]
Andrei Severny Tower Solar Telescope, Crimean Astrophysical Observatory		90 cm	1954–	Crimea	-
Multi-purpose automated solar telescope, Sayan Solar Observatory[8]	-	80 cm	–	Mondy, Republic of Buryatia, Russia	Russia	Located in the mountains at 2000m altitude.
Large Solar Vakuum Telescope, Baikal Astrophysical Observatory[9]		76 cm	1980–	Irkutsk_Oblast, Russia	Russia	Located on the Coast of Lake Baikal.
Optical and Near-Infrared Solar Eruption Tracer (ONSET), School of Astronomy & Space Science, Nanjing University	-	3x27,5 cm	2010–	Nanjing, China	China	The ONSET consists of four tubes: (1) a near-infrared vacuum tube, with an aperture of 27.5 cm, (2) a chromospheric vacuum tube, with an aperture of 27.5 cm, (3) a WL vacuum tube, with an aperture of 20 cm and (4) a guiding tube.[10]
Bulgarian 15-cm Solar Coronagraph,[11] NAO - Rozhen	-	100 cm	2005–	Rozhen, Bulgaria	Bulgaria
Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope[12](SST), ORM		100 cm	2002–	La Palma, Spain	Sweden
Prairie View Solar Observatory (PVSO)		35 cm	1999–	Texas, USA	United States
Dutch Open Telescope (DOT), ORM		45 cm	1997–	La Palma, Spain	Netherlands
THÉMIS Solar Telescope, Teide Obs.		90 cm	1996–	Tenerife, Spain	Italy and  France
Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT),[13] Teide Obs.		70 cm	1989–	Tenerife, Spain	Germany
Hida Domeless Solar Telescope[14] (ja)	-	60 cm	1979–	Takayama, Gifu, Japan	Japan
Udaipur Solar Observatory MAST Full Disk H-alpha Telescope H-alpha Spar Telescope Coudé Telescope		50 cm 15 cm 25 cm 15 cm	1976–	Udaipur, India	India
Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope (DST), Sacramento Peak		76 cm	1969–	Sunspot Solar Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico, USA	United States
Solar Observatory Tower Meudon		60 cm	1968–	Meudon, France	France
McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, KPO		161 cm	1961–	Arizona, USA	United States	Largest aperture optical and infrared solar telescope for nearly six decades
ARIES Observatory	-	15 cm	1961–	Nainital, India	India
Solar Tunnel Telescope, Kodaikanal Solar Observatory		61 cm (24 in)	1958–[15]	Kodaikanal, India	India
45-cm-Turmteleskop	-	45 cm	1943-	Schauinsland, Germany	Germany
Gregory Coudé Telescope		45 cm	1959-	Locarno, Switzerland	Switzerland	Operated by the Universitäts-Sternwarte Göttingen until 1984 and by IRSOL after 1984.
Solar Tower Telescope by Zeiss[16]	-	45 cm	1930–	Tokyo, Japan	Japan
Einsteinturm		60 cm	1924–	Potsdam, Germany	Germany
150-foot tower,[1] Mount Wilson Observatory		35 cm (24")	1912–	California, USA	United States
Snow Solar Telescope,[17] Mount Wilson Observatory	-	61 cm (24")	1904–	California, USA	United States	first solar tower telescope
Lerebour/Grubb-Parsons, Kodaikanal Solar Observatory		20 cm	1901–	Kodaikanal, India	India (1947- )  United Kingdom (1901–1950)

Former solar telescopes after 1900

Name/Observatory	Image	Aperture d.	Year(s)	Location	Country(s)	Note
Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope, ORM	-	47.5 cm	1985–2000	La Palma, Spain	Sweden	Replaced by the SST
Gregory Coude Telescope (GCT)[18]		45 cm[1]	1984–2002	Tenerife, Spain (1984–2002)	Germany	Replaced by GREGOR
Evans Solar Facility (ESF),[19] Sacramento Peak		40 cm	1953–2014	Sunspot Solar Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico, USA	United States	Also a coronagraph
Göttinger Sonnenturm (Solar Tower Telescope, Zeiss 1942)		2x15 cm 11 cm	1942–2004	Göttingen, Germany	Germany	65 cm-Coelostat by Zeiss, feeding light into several small light paths in tower
McMath-Hulbert Observatory	-	61 cm (24")	1941–1979	Michigan, USA	United States	Replaced the 10.5in in 1941
50-foot tower, McMath-Hulbert Observatory	-	40 cm	1936–1979	Michigan, USA	United States
10.5 inch, McMath-Hulbert Observatory	-	26.7 cm (10.5")	1930–1941	Michigan, USA	United States	Replaced by the 24 inch in 1941
Arcetri solar tower		37 cm	1925-2006	Arcetri, Italy	Italy

Telescopes for the Sun have existed for hundreds of years, this list is not complete and only goes back to 1900.

Potential future solar telescopes

Name/Observatory	Image	Aperture d.	Status	Location	Country(s)	Note
COronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (COSMO)[20]	-	150 cm	proposed	Hawaii, USA	United States
National Large Solar Telescope (NLST)	-	200 cm	proposed[21]	Merak Village, Ladakh, India	India
Chinese Giant Solar Telescope (CGST)[22]	-	500–800 cm	planned	Western part of China	China
European Solar Telescope (EST)[23]	-	400+ cm	planned	Canary Islands	15 European countries[24]

Other types of solar telescopes

There are much smaller commercial and/or amateur telescopes such as Coronado Filters from founder and designer David Lunt, bought by Meade Instruments in 2004 and sells SolarMax solar telescopes up to 8 cm[25][26]

Most solar observatories observe optically at visible, UV, and near infrared wavelengths, but other things can be observed.

• CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST), looks for solar axions in the early 2000s
• Multi-spectral solar telescope array (MSSTA), a rocket launched payload of UV telescopes in the 1990s
• Leoncito Astronomical Complex, has a submillimeter wavelength solar telescope.
• Owens Valley Solar Array, for solar radio observation

References

1. "Big Bear Solar Observatory - Large Solar Telescopes".
2. "Welcome to the DKIST | DKIST".
3. Witze, A. (29 January 2020). "World's most powerful solar telescope is up and running". Nature. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00224-z.
4. "Cycle 1 Proposal Call Announcement". NSO/DKIST. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
5. "First light of the 1.8-m solar telescope–CLST". SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
6. GREGOR Website at KIS, Freiburg
7. http://www.iau.org/static/scientific_meetings/iau_ga_2012/speeches/su_ding_qiang.pdf
8. http://en.iszf.irk.ru/Main_Page Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics
9. http://en.iszf.irk.ru/Main_Page Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics
10. Hao, Q.; Guo, Y.; Dai, Y.; Ding, M. D.; Li, Z.; Zhang, X. Y.; Fang, C. (2012). "Understanding the white-light flare on 2012 March 9: Evidence of a two-step magnetic reconnection". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 544: L17. arXiv:1211.1751. Bibcode:2012A&A...544L..17H. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201219941.
11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-08-08. Retrieved 2015-06-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
12. solarphysics.kva.se The Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope Archived 2008-06-16 at the Wayback Machine
13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-12-26. Retrieved 2009-02-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
14. "The Domeless Solar Telescope".
15. "I.S. Glass's home page".
16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-03-10. Retrieved 2014-08-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
17. "Telescope: Snow Solar Telescope".
18. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2010-09-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
19. https://nsosp.nso.edu/esf
20. http://www.cosmo.ucar.edu/
21. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-09-05. Retrieved 2010-09-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
22. Y. Y. Deng (21 March 2011). "Introduction to the Chinese Giant Solar Telescope" (PDF). www.ncra.tifr.res.in. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
23. "Home".
24. http://www.astro-east.org/
25. Sky & Telescope: David Lunt (1942-2005)
26. David Lunt biography, Solar Filter designer Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine

Further reading

• BBSO List of large solar telescopes by aperture

See also

• Solar tower (astronomy)
• Lists of telescopes