Big Bear Solar Observatory

Big Bear Solar Observatory. . , BBSO is home to the world's largest aperture, and highest resolution solar telescope. The 1.6 meter primary mirror of the New Solar Telescope (NST) is housed in the first facility-class solar telescope made in the USA in a generation. The NST saw first light in early 2009. The telescope is outfitted with the latest technologies to make the highest possible resolution studies of our star, so we can understand the nature of the Sun and its dynamics, which have such a profound impact on our life on Earth. The Sun not only keeps us warm, but its magnetic storms can damage satellites and disrupt the power grid and communications. The telescope is located in the lake because the lake provides a natural inversion that minimizes the image blurring caused by atmospheric turbulence. , Above is an NST line-of-sight magnetic field measurement from September 23, 2010 using the NST's Infrared Imaging Magnetograph (called IRIM) with a field of view about 30,000 by 18,000 miles. Opposing N-S magnetic polarities are indicated by the bright and dark colors. The smallest resolved magnetic features are less than 150 miles in diameter. This picture represents the best magnetogram ever from Big Bear. This resolution is equivalent to resolving a row of dimes that are twenty miles away. Precisely measuring the Sun's magnetic field is critical to understanding the nature of solar dynamics. , Below: A small sunspot (dark) surrounded by its penumbra (elongated fibrils). The penumbra is then surrounded by the Sun's ubiquitous granular field. The individual granules are the bright cells that can be as large as California. For perspective, the Earth is slightly smaller than the sunspot. The French science magazine, Ciel et Espace called this July 2, 2010 image the most precise picture of the Sun ever. National Geographic's editors selected the picture below as one of the ten "Best Space Pictures of 2010". , The off-axis NST design allows light to be focused without a shadow from the secondary mirror. The schematic at the left indicates the optical path through the NST to the labs below. The optical tables in the lower level house instruments that correct atmospheric distortion, measure magnetic fields, and record solar images. See www.bbso.njit.edu for more information. , second panel: , BBSO has three major on-going instrumentation projects for the 1.6 m solar telescope. They are a fully cryogenic spectrograph, visible light and infrared magnetographs, and next generation adaptive optics. , BBSO operates an observing station (right) for the GONG Project. (Global Oscillation Network Group). GONG, part of the National Solar Observatory, operates a global network of six telescopes to study the structure of the sun by observing its internal oscillations. , Left: The small dome houses the full-disk Hydrogen Alpha telescope, which tracks the dynamics of the Sun. The dome also houses the Earthshine telescope, which observes the dark of the Moon to measure the Earth's large scale reflectance, a critical climate parameter. We operate global networks of both kinds of telescopes. , Above: A picture of a sunspot taken with a hydrogen alpha filter, which reveals the dynamics of the solar chromosphere (a layer a few hundred miles above the Sun's visible surface). The long dark streaks are plasma jets carrying material higher into the solar atmosphere. The jets arising from the bright magnetic regions at the outer edge of the penumbra feed solar wind that constantly buffets the Earth's environment.