List of solar telescopes

Ground-based solar telescopes are specialized telescopes used to observe the Sun from Earth's surface. 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.

Ground telescopes

Optical telescopes

Name/Observatory Image Aperture Year(s) Location Country(s) Note(s)
Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) 400 cm 2019– Haleakalā, Maui, Hawaii, United States  United States [1][2][3][4]
Chinese Large Solar Telescope (CLST) 180 cm 2019– Chengdu, Sichuan, 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
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 80 cm Mondy, Republic of Buryatia, Russia  Russia Located in the mountains at 2000m altitude.[8]
Large Solar Vakuum Telescope, Baikal Astrophysical Observatory 76 cm 1980– Irkutsk Oblast, Russia  Russia Located on the Coast of Lake Baikal.[8]
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.[9]
Bulgarian 15-cm Solar Coronagraph,[10] Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory Bulgaria 100 cm 2005– Rozhen, Bulgaria  Bulgaria
Swedish Solar Telescope (SST), Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 100 cm 2002– La Palma, Spain  Sweden [11]
Prairie View Solar Observatory (PVSO)[12] 35 cm 1999– Texas, United States  United States
Upgraded Coronal Multi-Channel Polarimeter (UCOMP) 20 cm 2021– Mauna Loa, Hawaii, United States  United States
K-Coronagraph (K-COR) 20 cm 2013– Mauna Loa, Hawaii, United States  United States
Dutch Open Telescope (DOT), Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 45 cm 1997– La Palma, Spain  Netherlands
THÉMIS Solar Telescope, Teide Observatory 90 cm 1996– Tenerife, Spain  Italy and  France
Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT), Teide Observatory 70 cm 1989– Tenerife, Spain  Germany [13]
Hida Domeless Solar Telescope (ja) 60 cm 1979– Takayama, Gifu, Japan  Japan [14]
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, United States  United States
Solar Observatory Tower Meudon 60 cm 1968– Meudon, France  France
McMath–Pierce solar telescope, KPO 161 cm 1961– Arizona, United States  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– Kodaikanal, India  India [15]
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 45 cm 1930– Tokyo, Japan  Japan [16]
Einsteinturm 60 cm 1924– Potsdam, Germany  Germany
150-foot tower, Mount Wilson Observatory 35 cm (24") 1912– California, United States  United States [1]
Snow Solar Telescope, Mount Wilson Observatory 61 cm (24") 1904– California, United States  United States First solar telescope[17]
Lerebour/Grubb-Parsons, Kodaikanal Solar Observatory 20 cm 1901– Kodaikanal, India  India (1947- )
 United Kingdom (1901–1950)
Solar-T [pt] 2x7.6 cm 2016 Antarctica  Brazil [18]
Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope, Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 47.5 cm 1985–2000 La Palma, Spain  Sweden Replaced by the SST
Gregory Coude Telescope (GCT) 45 cm[1] 1984–2002 Tenerife, Spain (1984–2002)  Germany Replaced by GREGOR[19][1]
Evans Solar Facility (ESF), Sacramento Peak 40 cm 1953–2014 Sunspot Solar Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico, United States  United States [20]
Göttinger Sonnenturm (Solar Tower Telescope) 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, United States  United States Replaced the 10.5in in 1941
50-foot tower, McMath-Hulbert Observatory 40 cm 1936–1979 Michigan, United States  United States
10.5 inch, McMath-Hulbert Observatory 26.7 cm (10.5") 1930–1941 Michigan, United States  United States Replaced by the 24 inch in 1941
Arcetri Solar Tower, Arcetri Observatory 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 optical telescopes

Name/Observatory Image Aperture d. Status Location Country(s) Note
Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (COSMO) 150 cm proposed  United States [21]
National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) 200 cm proposed[22] Merak Village, Ladakh, India  India
Chinese Giant Solar Telescope (CGST) 500–800 cm planned Western part of China  China [23]
European Solar Telescope (EST) 400+ cm planned Canary Islands 15 European countries[24] [25]

Radio telescopes

Name/Observatory Image Frequency range Year(s) Location Country(s) Note(s)
Chinese Spectral Radioheliograph (CSRH) 0.4 - 2.0 Ghz
2.0 - 15 GHz		 2013 - Inner Mongolia, China  China

40x 4.5m dishes - low freq band

60x 2m dishes - high freq band

Radio imaging-spectroscopy observations of the Sun in decimetric and centimetric wavelengths[26]

Nançay Radioheliographe (NRH), Nançay Radio Observatory 150–450 MHz Sologne, Centre-Val de Loire, France  France [27]
Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA) 1–18 GHz Sologne, Centre-Val de Loire, France  France Previously known as the Owens Valley Solar Array (OVSA) before getting an expansion to upgrade its control system and increase the total number of antennas to 15.[28]
Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH), Nobeyama Radio Observatory 17 and 34 GHz Minamimaki, Nagano Prefecture, Japan  Japan [29]
Nobeyama Radio Polarimeters, Nobeyama Radio Observatory 1, 2, 3.75, 9.4, 17, 35, and 80 GHz Minamimaki, Nagano Prefecture, Japan  Japan [30]
Siberian Solar Radio Telescope (SSRT) 1983– Republic of Buryatia, Russia  Russia [31]
Solar Submillimeter Telescope (SST), Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito 212 and 405 GHz 1999– San Juan Province, Argentina  Argentina SST is the only solar submillimeter telescope currently in operation.[32]
Polarization Emission of Millimeter Activity at the Sun (POEMAS), Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito 45 and 90 GHz 2011– San Juan Province, Argentina  Argentina
Bleien Radio Observatory 10 MHz–5 GHz 1979– Gränichen, Switzerland  Switzerland [33]
Radio Solar Telescope Network (RSTN) 245, 410, 610, 1415, 2695, 4975, 8800 and 15400 MHz Australia; Italy; Massachusetts and Hawaii, United States  Australia,  Italy, and  United States A series of four radio telescopes located at various locations around the world.[33][34]
Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope 150-450 MHz 2023- Sichuan province  China 313 parabolic antennas for detection of coronal mass ejection events. Operations started in 2023.[35]
Mingantu interplanetary scintillation telescope 327 MHz and 654 MHz 2023- Inner Mongolia  China interplanetary scintillation telescope, consists of three rotatable cylindrical antennas (140 metres by 40 metres each).[36]

Space Telescopes

Solar Space Telescopes are part of the List of heliophysics missions

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[37][38]

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

Further reading

See also

References

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  19. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2010-09-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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