Facilities

Flagship Facilities

Dunn Solar Telescope

The 76-cm Dunn Solar Telescope, located on Sacramento Peak at an altitude of 2804 meters, is the premier facility for high-resolution solar physics. The evacuated light path eliminates the loss of image clarity due to distortions from the air. NSO has pioneered solar adaptive optics and high-resolution, ground-based solar physics as a necessary prelude to ATST.

McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope

The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope on Kitt Peak, at an altitude of 2096 meters, is currently the largest unobstructed-aperture optical telescope in the world, with a diameter of 1.5 meters. Thus, it is uniquely capable of panchromatic, flux-limiting studies of the Sun. In particular, it is the only solar telescope in the world on which investigations in the relatively unexplored infrared domain beyond 2.5 microns are routinely accomplished.

Global Oscillation Network Group

The Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) studies the internal structure and dynamics of the Sun by means of helioseismology - the measurement of acoustic waves that penetrate throughout the solar interior - using a six-station, world-circling network that provides nearly continuous observations of the Sun's "five-minute oscillations".

---

Synoptic Facilities

Evans Solar Facility

The Evans Facility is used to conduct observations of the sun for both local staff and visiting scientists worldwide. Observations are made of the solar corona, and also of transient phenomena such as flares, eruptive prominences, and surges, as well as quiet sun features.

Hilltop Dome Facility

The Hilltop Dome Facility houses the white-light and H-alpha flare patrols, the coronal one-shot coronagraph, and a multi-band solar photometer.

Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope

The KPVT is used to make daily maps of solar magnetic and Doppler fields, and intensity maps in several solar spectral lines. The synoptic observing program at the KPVT has produced a number of research discoveres with subsequent, significant impacts, including the discovery that magnetic flux concentrations absorb acoustic waves and the demonstration that open magnetic fields are associated with coronal holes and high-speed solar wind.