National Solar Observatory

Last updated

National Solar Observatory
Established1984 (1984)
Research typebasic
Field of research
 Solar physics
Directors Valentín Martínez Pillet
Staff around 150
Address3665 Discovery Drive, 3rd Floor,Boulder,CO,80303,US
LocationBoulder, Colorado, US
40°00′42″N105°14′44″W / 40.0117201°N 105.2454644°W / 40.0117201; -105.2454644
Sponsoring agency
 National Science Foundation
Affiliations University of Colorado Boulder
Operating agency
 Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
Website www.nso.edu

The National Solar Observatory (NSO) is a United States federally funded research and development center for solar physics headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. It was founded in 1984 and is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. [1]

Contents

NSO manages several ground-based solar telescopes and observatories including the 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope at the Haleakala Observatory; the Sunspot Solar Observatory near Sunspot, New Mexico; and six sites around the world for the Global Oscillations Network Group, one of which is shared with the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun. NSO also operates the NSO Integrated Synoptic Program (NISP), which combines and coordinates synoptic solar observations for research and space weather applications.

Visiting the observatories

The National Solar Observatory Headquarters is located on the campus of the University of Colorado Boulder. It also has some staff on Maui, and Sacramento Peak.

Telescopes operated by the observatory

Big Bear Solar Observatory

Haleakala Observatory

Sacramento Peak

Global

Directors

A list of all NSO directors since the founding of the observatory is given below.

NSO DirectorDates in office
Robert Howard1983–1986
John Leibacher1986–1992
Jacques Beckers1993–1998
Steve Keil1999–2013
Valentín Martínez Pillet2013–2024
Christoph Keller2024–present [2]

History

The Sacramento Peak observatories were proposed by Donald Menzel of the Harvard College Observatory in 1947, when the U.S. Air Force commissioned a site survey for a suitable facility that would study the higher regions of the Earth's atmosphere. The site, near White Sands Proving Ground, was chosen in 1948. The first equipment to be operated by the Harvard Observatory was installed in 1949, a 6-inch (15 cm) prominence camera, and a flare patrol camera, installed in the Grain Bin Dome. [3]

These instruments were followed by the Evans Solar Facility, or Big Dome, which housed a 16-inch (41 cm) coronograph and spectrograph. In 1963 the Hilltop Dome was built to house additional instruments. [3]

The Sacramento Peak facilities are located in Sunspot, New Mexico. The site's name was chosen by the late James C. Sadler, (1920–2005), an internationally noted meteorologist and professor at The University of Hawaiʻi, formerly with the United States Air Force on assignment during the early inception of the observatory. [4]

For the Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, the National Solar Observatory enlisted the cooperation of various groups in the Citizen CATE (Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse) experiment to set up more than 60 identical telescopes along the eclipse path, to produce 90 continuous minutes of images, 10 seconds apart, of the Sun's inner corona. This was to provide a clearer understanding of solar plumes and other transient phenomena. [5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ A Dictionary of Astronomy (2nd ed.). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. 2012. ISBN   9780199609055.
  2. ↑ "AURA Appoints Christoph Keller as next National Solar Observatory Director". NSO - National Solar Observatory. 4 January 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
  3. 1 2 Leverington, David (2013). Encyclopedia of the History of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 287. ISBN   978-0-521-89994-9.
  4. ↑ Zirker, J. B. (1998). "The Sacramento Peak Observatory". Solar Physics. No. 182. pp. 1–19.
  5. ↑ Klotz, Irene. "Citizen scientists will take to the field for U.S. eclipse". U.S. Retrieved 2018-07-06.

Further reading

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