National Solar Observatory

National Solar Observatory

Established	1952 (1952)
Research type	basic
Field of research	solar physics
Director	Valentin M. Pillet
Staff	around 150
Address	3665 Discovery Drive, 3rd Floor, Boulder, CO, 80303, USA
Location	Boulder, Colorado, USA 40.0117201°N 105.2454644°W / 40.0117201; -105.2454644
Affiliations	University of Colorado Boulder
Operating agency	AURA, NSF
Website	www.nso.edu

The National Solar Observatory (NSO) is a United States public research institute to advance the knowledge of the physics of the Sun. NSO studies the Sun both as an astronomical object and as the dominant external influence on Earth. NSO is headquartered in Boulder and operates facilities at two locations, at Sacramento Peak near Sunspot in New Mexico, and at Kitt Peak in Arizona until the end of fiscal year 2017. The institute is constructing the 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in the Haleakala Observatory on the island of Maui.

NSO provides its observations to the scientific community. It operates facilities, develops advanced instrumentation both in-house and through partnerships, conducts solar research, and carries out educational and public outreach.

Visiting the observatories

The National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak welcomes visitors during the daytime. There is a separate, nighttime observatory, Apache Point Observatory, located nearby. The observatory lies in New Mexico at the southern end of NM Scenic Byway 6563, about 18 miles (by car) south of Cloudcroft (on NM 82), and 40 miles southeast (by car) from Alamogordo (on NM 70 and 54), in the village of Sunspot inside of the Lincoln National Forest. Sunspot is an unincorporated community in the Sacramento Mountains in Otero County.

The National Solar Observatory in Arizona is located in Tucson and at Kitt Peak, which is 56 miles southwest of Tucson via State Route 86 on the Tohono O'Odham Reservation. Allow 90 minutes of drive time from Tucson.

Telescopes operated by the observatory

Sacramento Peak

• The Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope
• The Evans Solar Facility
• Hilltop Dome Facility
• See Apache Point Observatory for the telescopes located there

Kitt Peak

• McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope
• Kitt Peak Solis Telescope

Global

• Global Oscillation Network Group

History

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 Hawaii, formerly with the United States Air Force on assignment during the early inception of the observatory.

For the Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, NSO 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.

Further reading

• Britt, Robert Roy (December 8, 2006). "Scientists spot 'tsunami' on the sun". NBCNews.com. 
• Liebowitz, R. P. (2002). "Donald Menzel and the creation of the Sacramento Peak Observatory". Journal for the History of Astronomy. 33 (111). pp. 193–211. Bibcode:2002JHA....33..193L. ISSN 0021-8286. Retrieved March 3, 2015. 

External links

• Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope
• NSO Integrated Synoptic Program
• Media related to National Solar Observatory at Wikimedia Commons