McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope
For many years the largest solar telescope in the world, the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, was a triple instrument. In addition to the primary 1.61-meter mirror fed by the 2.03-meter heliostat, there are a pair of telescopes fed by 0.81-meter heliostats mounted beside the main heliostat. These two instruments have 1.07-meter and 0.91-meter primary mirrors. The telescope used the heliostat at the top of its main tower to direct the Sun's light down a long shaft to the primary mirrors. The distinctive diagonal shaft continues underground, where the telescope's primary mirror is located.
The facility is named to honor Dr. Keith Pierce as well as Dr. Robert McMath.
The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope was decommissioned in 2017 and is being converted to the NOIRLab Windows on the Universe Center for Astronomy Outreach.
McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope
| Name(s) |
McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope |
| Status |
Decommissioned |
| Broad Science Goals |
The McMath-Pierce was used to study the structure of sunspots, as well as sunspot spectra. |
| Site |
Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona, USA |
| Location Coordinates |
31º 95’ ’S
111º 59’’E |
| Altitude |
2096 meters (6876 feet) |
| Enclosure |
The telescope is a 110-foot-tall, 26-foot-diameter platform that supports a mirror that reflects light down a 200-foot-long concrete optical tunnel. Both the tower and the light tunnel stand freely inside water-cooled protective concrete casings. These shelter the telescope from mountaintop winds, utilizing a square form tilted at a 45-degree angle. |
| Type |
Reflecting Solar Telescope |
| Optical Design |
f/54 |
| Field of View |
10 arcminutes (unvignetted) |
| Diameter: Primary M1 |
1.6 meters |
| Material: Primary M1 |
Quartz |
| Diameter: Secondary M2 |
|
| Material: Secondary M2 |
Cervit |
| Mount |
Equatorial |
| First Light Date |
1962 |
| Adaptive Optics |
A number of adaptive optics image stabilizers using sunspots, as object of contrast, were tested. |
| Images taken with the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope |
Link |
| Images of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope |
Link |
| Videos of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope |
Link |
| Press Releases with the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope |
Link |
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