| |
 |
| Paper: |
India's National Large Solar Telescope |
| Volume: |
463, 2nd ATST-EAST Workshop in Solar Physics: Magnetic Fields from the Photosphere to the Corona |
| Page: |
395 |
| Authors: |
Hasan, S. S. |
| Abstract: |
India's 2-m National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) is aimed primarily
at carrying out observations of the solar atmosphere with high spatial
and spectral resolution. A comprehensive site characterization
program, that commenced in 2007, has identified two superb sites in
the Himalayan region at altitudes greater than 4000-m that have
extremely low water vapor content and are unaffected by monsoons. With
an innovative optical design, the NLST is an on-axis Gregorian telescope
with a low number of optical elements to reduce the number of
reflections and yield a high throughput with low polarization. In
addition, it is equipped with a high-order adaptive optics to produce
close to diffraction limited performance. To control atmospheric and
thermal perturbations of the observations, the telescope will function
with a fully open dome, to achieve its full potential atop a 25 m
tower. Given its design, NLST can also operate at night, without
compromising its solar performance. The post-focus instruments
include broad-band and tunable Fabry-Pérot narrow-band imaging
instruments; a high resolution spectropolarimeter and an Echelle
spectrograph for night time astronomy.
This project is led by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics and has
national and international partners. Its geographical location will
fill the longitudinal gap between Japan and Europe and is expected to
be the largest solar telescope with an aperture larger than 1.5 m till
the ATST and EST come into operation. An international consortium has been
identified to build the NLST. The facility is expected to be commissioned
by 2016. |
|
|
|
|
|
