NJIT Physics Department Seminar

April 12th, 2010, Monday

Scientific Instrumentation for the 1.6-m New Solar Telescope in Big Bear

Prof. Wenda Cao

NJIT

(Solar & Terrestrial Physics)

Time: Noon-1 pm with 11:30 am tea time

Room: 407 Tiernan

Abstract: The NST (New Solar Telescope), a 1.6-m clear aperture, off-axis telescope, is in its commissioning phase at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). It will be the most capable, largest aperture solar telescope in the US. The NST will be outfitted with state-of-the-art scientific instruments at the Nasmyth focus on the telescope floor and in the Coude Lab beneath the telescope. At the Nasmyth focus, several filtergraphs already in routine operation have offered high spatial resolution photometry in TiO 706 nm, Ha 656 nm, G-band 430 nm and the near infrared (NIR), with the aid of a correlation tracker and image reconstruction system. Also, a Cryogenic InfraRed Spectrograph (CIRS) is being developed to supply high signal-to-noise-ratio spectrometry and polarimetry spanning 1.0 to 5.0 micron. The Coude Lab instrumentation will include Adaptive Optics (AO), InfraRed Imaging Magnetograph (IRIM), Visible Imaging Magnetograph (VIM), and Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph (FISS). A 308 sub-aperture (349-actuator deformable mirror) AO system will enable diffraction limited observations over the NST's principal operating wavelengths from 0.4 through 1.7 micron. IRIM and VIM are Fabry-Perot based narrow-band tunable filter, which provide high resolution two-dimensional spectroscopic and polarimetric imaging in the NIR and visible respectively. FISS is a collaboration between BBSO and Seoul National University focussing on chromosphere dynamics. This talk reports the up-to-date progress on these instruments including an overview of each instrument and details of the current state of design, integration, calibration and setup/testing on the NST.