Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope
| Organisation | NSO, HAO, NJIT, UH IfA and UChicago |
|---|---|
| Location(s) | Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, USA |
| Coordinates | 20°42′24″N 156°15′22″W / 20.7068°N 156.2561°WCoordinates: 20°42′24″N 156°15′22″W / 20.7068°N 156.2561°W |
| Wavelength | 300nm – 12µm |
| Telescope style | Off-axis, all-reflecting Gregorian telescope |
| Diameter | 400 cm |
| Angular resolution | 0.023 arcsec at 400 nm |
| Mounting | Alt-az |
| Website | http://dkist.nso.edu/ |
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), formerly Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), is a large domed[1] solar telescope facility with 4-meter primary mirror that is under construction[2] by the National Solar Observatory atop the Haleakala volcano on the Pacific island of Maui. The telescope was officially named after late Hawaii Senator Daniel K. Inouye in December 2013, while still under construction.[3] On completion around 2018, it will be the world's largest solar telescope.
DKIST features an off-axis, clear aperture design to allow for observations with unprecedented spatial, spectral and temporal resolution. Avoiding a central obstruction is important to minimize scattered light when observing the faint solar corona, but it also eases operation of adaptive optics and post-facto image reconstruction such as speckle imaging.
The site on Haleakala was selected for its clear daytime atmospheric seeing conditions, which will enable study of the solar corona. The DKIST enclosure will house the solar telescope, capable of observing features on the Sun that are 30 km across.
Construction at the DKIST site began on January 2013 and is currently under way (as of August 2015)[4] Work on the telescope housing was completed in September 2013.[5]
Partners
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is a collaboration of 22 institutions:[6]
- Corporate Office: Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
- Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
- Principal Investigator: National Solar Observatory
- Co-Principal Investigators:
- High Altitude Observatory
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy
- University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Collaborators:
- Air Force Research Laboratory
- California Institute of Technology's Laboratories of Applied Physics, Bellan Plasma Group
- California State University at Northridge's Department of Physics and Astronomy
- Colorado Research Associates
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
- Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik, Freiburg, Germany
- Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory
- Michigan State University's Department of Physics and Astronomy
- Montana State University's Department of Physics
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
- Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory
- Southwest Research Institute's Instrumentation and Space Research Division
- Stanford University's W.W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory
- University of California Los Angeles
- University of California San Diego's Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences
- University of Chicago's Department of Mathematics
- University of Colorado at Boulder's Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy
- University of Colorado at Boulder's Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics
- University of Rochester's Department of Physics and Astronomy
References
- ↑ "ATST Schematic". Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-02-12.
- ↑ "The Advanced Technology Solar Telescope". Retrieved 2013-09-26.
- ↑ "Solar Telescope Named for Late Senator Inouye". National Solar Observatory. 16 December 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
- ↑ "Building the DKIST - Image Gallery". dkist.nso.edu. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ↑ Durand, Pierrot (2013-09-21), "Work on Dome Completed, say Spanish Companies", French Tribune, retrieved 2013-09-26. Note that the illustration accompanying the article is a 2012 artists' rendering of the Thirty Meter Telescope calotte dome, and looks nothing like the actual ATST enclosure.
- ↑ "Collaborating Institutions". dkist.nso.edu. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
- Keil, S. L.; Rimmele, T. R.; Wagner, J.; The ATST team (June 2010). "Advanced Technology Solar Telescope: A status report". Astronomische Nachrichten 331 (6): 609–614. Bibcode:2010AN....331..609K. doi:10.1002/asna.201011385.