The National Solar Observatory operates the Sunspot Solar Observatory. They have placed signs at the relative locations to the planets and our sun in our solar system. Pluto is in the center of Cloudcroft next to Zenith Park. Friday was our day to explore Sunspot.
We set off on the 17 mile drive to Sunspot. The road is an amazing feat of engineering and construction, in many places on and over the edge of the steep mountains, and it is exceptionally well maintained. Much of the route takes you through Lincoln National Forest with parcels of private property along the way. We stopped at the start of the route to view the valley, including White Sands National Monument in the distance.
After a leisurely drive, we arrived at the end, marked for the sun.
Before we even got to the visitor center, we stopped to check out the Antarctic Solar Telescope. It had been at the Amundsen South Pole Center in the 1980s where it could operate 24 hours a day for six months each year to study the helioseismic oscillations of the sun. It now tracks the sun and projects the image into one of the exhibits in the visitor center.
We spent about an hour in the visitor center exploring the exhibits and watching a short video. I knew that National Science Foundation funded a lot of research, but had no idea there was a government entity named the National Solar Observatory. At Sunspot Observatory, they operate the Dunn Solar Telescope which is 136 feet tall above ground and 193 feet deep below ground. It weighs 350 tons and floats on 120 gallons of mercury. The DKIST (Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope) is being built in Maui and scheduled to be operational this year. NSO also includes some legacy telescopes plus these two programs:
GONG is a set of six observing systems geographically distributed around the Earth so that the Sun can be observed as continuously as possible. The six locations are at Big Bear Solar Observatory, California; Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, Hawaii; Learmonth Solar Observatory, Australia; Udaipur Solar Observatory, India; Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, Canary Islands, Spain; and Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, Chile.
SOLIS is a single set of three instruments mounted on a common observing platform. The instruments are a Vector Spectromagnetograph (VSM), an Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer (ISS), and a Full-Disk Patrol (FDP). The VSM provides full-disk vector (strength and direction) maps of the solar magnetic field both in the photosphere and in the chromosphere on a daily basis, continuing the 40-year record of NSO magnetic field observations. The ISS obtains spectra of the Sun integrated over the solar disk, so the Sun appears as it would as a much more distant star. The combination of data from the ISS and the VSM is useful for studies of exoplanet systems as it allows the modeling of the influence of a star’s magnetic field on its spectrum giving clues to the activity level that the exoplanets may be subject to. The FDP provides full-disk images of the Sun in a variety of spectral lines with a cadence as high as 10 seconds. SOLIS was installed at Kitt Peak in 2003, then moved to Tucson in 2013.
On our way out of the visitor center, we checked out the Armillary Sphere and Sundial.
While no longer being used, the Evans Solar Facility had a 16 inch coronagraph and 12 inch coelostat used to look at the sun's corona.
The Dunn Solar Telescope has light enter at the top through a heliostat 136 feet above ground, goes to a 64 inch mirror 193 feet below ground, then back up to the optical laboratory at ground level. This is all done in a vacuum to eliminate distortion. It was originally built by the Air Force in 1969 and is now run by a consortium that includes New Mexico State University.
We passed by an old NSF cart and had to take a picture for Megan, as the NSF funds operations at McMurdo when she is there.
There is a very nice scenic overlook of the valley to the west.
The Hilltop Dome was used as a solar flare patrol telescope and to develop new technology that will be included in the under construction DKIST in Maui.
Sunspot was originally constructed as a small US Air Force installation. It has family housing, dorms, a community center, labs, repair facilities, a machine shop and more. Both here and at the nearby Apache Point Observatory, scientists, observers and support staff live and work year round.
On the way back from Sunspot, we stopped to get pictures of some of the signs. I got Earth, Patty got Saturn - it shows how close the earth is to the sun compared to how far the outer planets are.
This was an amazing place to visit and well worth the time. I need to learn more about the NSO and the other scientific organizations our tax dollars support. There is so much being done that rarely makes the news.
We set off on the 17 mile drive to Sunspot. The road is an amazing feat of engineering and construction, in many places on and over the edge of the steep mountains, and it is exceptionally well maintained. Much of the route takes you through Lincoln National Forest with parcels of private property along the way. We stopped at the start of the route to view the valley, including White Sands National Monument in the distance.
After a leisurely drive, we arrived at the end, marked for the sun.
Before we even got to the visitor center, we stopped to check out the Antarctic Solar Telescope. It had been at the Amundsen South Pole Center in the 1980s where it could operate 24 hours a day for six months each year to study the helioseismic oscillations of the sun. It now tracks the sun and projects the image into one of the exhibits in the visitor center.
We spent about an hour in the visitor center exploring the exhibits and watching a short video. I knew that National Science Foundation funded a lot of research, but had no idea there was a government entity named the National Solar Observatory. At Sunspot Observatory, they operate the Dunn Solar Telescope which is 136 feet tall above ground and 193 feet deep below ground. It weighs 350 tons and floats on 120 gallons of mercury. The DKIST (Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope) is being built in Maui and scheduled to be operational this year. NSO also includes some legacy telescopes plus these two programs:
GONG is a set of six observing systems geographically distributed around the Earth so that the Sun can be observed as continuously as possible. The six locations are at Big Bear Solar Observatory, California; Mauna Loa Solar Observatory, Hawaii; Learmonth Solar Observatory, Australia; Udaipur Solar Observatory, India; Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, Canary Islands, Spain; and Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, Chile.
SOLIS is a single set of three instruments mounted on a common observing platform. The instruments are a Vector Spectromagnetograph (VSM), an Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer (ISS), and a Full-Disk Patrol (FDP). The VSM provides full-disk vector (strength and direction) maps of the solar magnetic field both in the photosphere and in the chromosphere on a daily basis, continuing the 40-year record of NSO magnetic field observations. The ISS obtains spectra of the Sun integrated over the solar disk, so the Sun appears as it would as a much more distant star. The combination of data from the ISS and the VSM is useful for studies of exoplanet systems as it allows the modeling of the influence of a star’s magnetic field on its spectrum giving clues to the activity level that the exoplanets may be subject to. The FDP provides full-disk images of the Sun in a variety of spectral lines with a cadence as high as 10 seconds. SOLIS was installed at Kitt Peak in 2003, then moved to Tucson in 2013.
On our way out of the visitor center, we checked out the Armillary Sphere and Sundial.
While no longer being used, the Evans Solar Facility had a 16 inch coronagraph and 12 inch coelostat used to look at the sun's corona.
The Dunn Solar Telescope has light enter at the top through a heliostat 136 feet above ground, goes to a 64 inch mirror 193 feet below ground, then back up to the optical laboratory at ground level. This is all done in a vacuum to eliminate distortion. It was originally built by the Air Force in 1969 and is now run by a consortium that includes New Mexico State University.
We passed by an old NSF cart and had to take a picture for Megan, as the NSF funds operations at McMurdo when she is there.
There is a very nice scenic overlook of the valley to the west.
The Hilltop Dome was used as a solar flare patrol telescope and to develop new technology that will be included in the under construction DKIST in Maui.
Sunspot was originally constructed as a small US Air Force installation. It has family housing, dorms, a community center, labs, repair facilities, a machine shop and more. Both here and at the nearby Apache Point Observatory, scientists, observers and support staff live and work year round.
On the way back from Sunspot, we stopped to get pictures of some of the signs. I got Earth, Patty got Saturn - it shows how close the earth is to the sun compared to how far the outer planets are.
This was an amazing place to visit and well worth the time. I need to learn more about the NSO and the other scientific organizations our tax dollars support. There is so much being done that rarely makes the news.
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