The most detailed sunspot ever obtained in visible light

[neufer]

Posted in: Observing, Solar Astronomy, sun by Nancy Atkinson

[color=#FF0000]Amazing Sunspot Image from New Solar Telescope[/color]

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<<The most detailed sunspot ever obtained in visible light was seen by new telescope at NJIT's Big Bear Solar Observatory. Credit: Big Bear Solar Observatory

A new type of adaptive optics for solar observations has produced some incredible results, providing the most detailed image of a sunspot ever obtained in visible light. A new telescope built by the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Big Bear Solar Observatory has seen its ‘first light’ using a deformable mirror, which is able to reduce atmospheric distortions. This is the first facility-class solar observatory built in more than a generation in the U.S.

The New Solar Telescope (NST) is located in the mountains east of Los Angeles. It has 97 actuators that make up the deformable mirror. By the summer of 2011, in collaboration with the National Solar Observatory, BBSO will have upgraded the current adaptive optics system to one utilizing a 349 actuator deformable mirror. The telescope has a 1.6 m clear aperture, with a resolution covering about 50 miles on the Sun’s surface.

The NST will be the pathfinder for an even larger ground-based telescope, the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope to be built over the next decade. Philip R. Goode from NJIT is leading a partnership with the National Solar Observatory (NSO) to develop a new and more sophisticated kind of adaptive optics, known as multi-conjugate adaptive optics. This new optical system will allow the researchers to increase the distortion-free field of view to allow for better ways to study these larger and puzzling areas of the Sun, and a 4-meter aperture telescope will be built in the next decade.>>

[orin stepanek]

Oh my gosh; the sun has a zit!
It is fantastic that they can get such a good photograph of the sunspot like that!

[Beyond]

Geeze! All that flame and heat and we actually get to see inside through a sunspot and it's - dark in there? Bummer

[neufer]

Geeze! All that flame and heat and we actually get to see inside through a sunspot and it's - dark in there? Bummer

<<The Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) was built by the California Institute of Technology in 1969. The location of Big Bear was optimum for its clarity of sky. The Lake surface is about 6,750 feet above sea level. Its position out on the peninsula provides a cooling effect on the atmosphere surrounding the building and eliminates ground heat radiation waves that normally would cause heat wave aberrations. Management of the observatory was transferred to the New Jersey Institute of Technology in 1997.

http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/CA8032/

The observatory has been operating with a 65 cm vacuum reflector telescope, a 25 cm vacuum refractor, and a 20 cm full disc telescope. The 65 and 25 cm scopes study sunspots while the 20 cm full disc scope tracks the whole round of the sun from sun up to sun set. By late spring 2007 it was planned that the 65 cm, 25 cm and 20 cm scopes be replaced by a new 1.6 meter, open frame, clear aperture telescope. The 20 cm telescope will be replaced by a similar telescope in an additional small dome. The old dome has been replaced with a larger, more spherical, ventilated dome to contain the new 1.6 meter telescope from DFM Engineering. It was under active construction in 2008, and saw first light of the sun in January 2009.>>

[Beyond]

So the Big Bear Solar Observatory has a bar in it that serves tropical drinks? That should create more of an interest in astronomy

[neufer]

So the Big Bear Solar Observatory has a bar in it that serves tropical drinks? That should create more of an interest in astronomy

Parasol, n. [F., fr. Sp. or Pg. parasol, or It. parasole; It. parare to ward off, Sp. & Pg. parar (L. parare to prepare) + It. sole sun, Sp. & Pg. sol (L. sol). See Parry, Solar.] A kind of small umbrella used by women as a protection from the sun.

<<A cocktail umbrella is a small umbrella or parasol made from paper, paperboard, and a toothpick, used as a garnish or decoration in cocktails, desserts or other food and beverages. The umbrella is fashioned out of paper, which can be patterned, with cardboard ribs. A small plastic retaining ring is often fashioned against the stem, a toothpick, in order to prevent the umbrella from folding up spontaneously.

The cocktail umbrella is believed to have arrived on the bar scene as early as 1932 courtesy of Victor Bergeron of Trader Vic's in San Francisco although it is, by Vic's own admission, a presentation picked up from Don the Beachcomber. Upon introduction, umbrellas were considered very exotic as were most things from the Pacific Rim.>>

[bystander]

Big Bear's Big New Eye
Sky & Telescope | 25 Aug 2010

Among the world's professional observatories, the one in Big Bear, California, is unique.

A newly enlarged dome, which stands in stark contrast to Big Bear Lake, now houses the world's largest-aperture solar telescope. (Credit: [url=http://solar.njit.edu/aboutus.htm]NJIT/CSTR[/url])

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First, it's located in a lake — not along a lake, but in it! This was Caltech astronomer Harold Zirin's idea. In the late 1960s he wanted to build a world-class facility for studying the Sun, and he was attracted to the clear stable air over Big Bear Lake high in the mountains about 100 miles east of Los Angeles. Zirin equipped his pride and joy with a trio of scopes having apertures of 8 to 25 inches (20 to 65 cm).

Second, it's one of three observatories that Caltech gave up. (Do you know the other two?) In 1997 this venerable bastion of science and engineering turned over Big Bear's keys to the New Jersey Institute of Technology, which promptly dedicated the facility to honor Zirin, who'd managed it for some 30 years.

Third, Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) is home to the world's largest solar telescope (until the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope comes online later this decade). Last October, NJIT finished a five-year overhaul that brought in a state-of-the-art telescope with a clear aperture of 63 inches (1.6 m), actuators to contort the primary mirror for optimum sharpness, and an off-axis f/52 design that provides an unobstructed light path.

[Chris Peterson]

So the Big Bear Solar Observatory has a bar in it that serves tropical drinks? That should create more of an interest in astronomy :!:

It didn't when I worked there. But the nice thing about being a solar astronomer was that you could enjoy a bit of the night life (such as it was) in Big Bear City.

It's nice to see this observatory still in use, and all this new technology installed.

[neufer]

So the Big Bear Solar Observatory has a bar in it that serves tropical drinks? That should create more of an interest in astronomy

It didn't when I worked there. But the nice thing about being a solar astronomer was that you could enjoy a bit of the night life (such as it was) in Big Bear City. It's nice to see this observatory still in use, and all this new technology installed.

When did you work there and what did you do?

[Chris Peterson]

So the Big Bear Solar Observatory has a bar in it that serves tropical drinks? That should create more of an interest in astronomy :!:

It didn't when I worked there. But the nice thing about being a solar astronomer was that you could enjoy a bit of the night life (such as it was) in Big Bear City. It's nice to see this observatory still in use, and all this new technology installed.

When did you work there and what did you do?

I was a summer intern while in college- 1979 I think. Did the stuff interns do- run equipment, process films, float around on the little boat...

[geckzilla]

Is there a fence blocking off the path that goes to the observatory? I swear I was there once but it must have been a long time ago. I can't even remember why I was there but I remember being frustrated by a fence and seeing an observatory at the end. Maybe it's just a false memory. Seems like there was also a little info panel near the fence. A paltry consolation to a kid who wants to go see inside the thing.

[Chris Peterson]

Is there a fence blocking off the path that goes to the observatory? I swear I was there once but it must have been a long time ago. I can't even remember why I was there but I remember being frustrated by a fence and seeing an observatory at the end. Maybe it's just a false memory. Seems like there was also a little info panel near the fence. A paltry consolation to a kid who wants to go see inside the thing.

When I was last there, there was a chain link gate at the end of the causeway.

[geckzilla]

I must have been there... If it was just the words I'd tell you I was never there but seeing the photo surfaced something I must have forgotten until now. I don't remember ever going to Big Bear other than one ski trip but I do know dad liked going there. Thinking on it a little more I was also very confused that it was a solar observatory. They always told me not to look at the sun.

[Beyond]

I must have been there... If it was just the words I'd tell you I was never there but seeing the photo surfaced something I must have forgotten until now. I don't remember ever going to Big Bear other than one ski trip but I do know dad liked going there. Thinking on it a little more I was also very confused that it was a solar observatory. They always told me not to look at the sun.

Adults!! What do "they" know? They are still saying the same things to kids today

[neufer]

Oh my gosh; the sun has a zit!

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