McMath–Pierce solar telescope is a 1.6 m
f/54
reflecting solar telescope at
Kitt Peak National Observatory
The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than ...
in
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
, United States. Built in 1962, the building was designed by American architect
Myron Goldsmith
Myron Goldsmith (September 15, 1918 – July 15, 1996) was an American architect and designer.David W. DunlaJuly 17, 1996 New York Times He was a student of Mies van der Rohe and Pier Luigi Nervi before designing 40 projects at Skidmore, Owings & ...
and
Bangladeshi-American
Bangladeshi Americans ( bn, বাংলাদেশী মার্কিনী, Bangladeshī Markinī) are Americans of Bangladeshi descent. The majority of Bangladeshi Americans are Bengalis and form the largest group of Bengali Americans. Ba ...
structural engineer
Fazlur Rahman Khan
Fazlur Rahman Khan ( bn, ফজলুর রহমান খান, ''Fozlur Rôhman Khan''; 3 April 1929 – 27 March 1982) was a Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect, who initiated important structural systems for skyscrape ...
. It was the largest solar telescope and the largest unobstructed
aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane.
An ...
optical
telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observ ...
in the world. It is named after the
astronomers
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either obse ...
Robert Raynolds McMath
Robert Raynolds McMath (May 11, 1891 – January 2, 1962) was a U.S. solar astronomer.
Robert R. McMath (1891-1962) was a bridge engineer, businessman, and astronomer. Robert's father, Francis C. McMath, had made a fortune as a bridge build ...
and Keith Pierce.
It was originally called the McMath Solar Telescope, and then later renamed the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope in 1992.
Although it is designed for observation of the Sun, it can also be used to view bright objects at night.
In 2018, the telescope received a 4.5 million USD grant for an enhanced visitor center and other programs, and to overall revitalize the national icon.
Construction
The telescope is a triple instrument. In addition to the primary 1.61 m mirror fed by the 2.03 m
heliostat, there are a pair of telescopes fed by 0.81 m heliostats mounted beside the main heliostat. These two instruments have 1.07 m and 0.91 m primary mirrors.
The telescope uses 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
A primary mirror (or primary) is the principal light-gathering surface (the objective) of a reflecting telescope.
Description
The primary mirror of a reflecting telescope is a spherical or parabolic shaped disks of polished reflective meta ...
is located. The theoretical resolution of the main telescope is 0.07
arcsec, although this is never reached because atmospheric distortions degrade the image quality severely. The image scale is 2.50 arcsec/mm at the image plane. Since 2002 the National Solar Observatory staff have developed an adaptive optics system designed for the unique needs of solar observatories that dramatically improve the resolution of science images.
The secondary telescopes are called ''East'' and ''West''. They are completely independent of the main telescope. These two auxiliary telescopes each have a 0.91-meter heliostat located beside the main heliostat. These auxiliary telescopes have a slightly shorter focal length and f-numbers of 50 and 44. The resolution of the auxiliary telescopes is 5.11 arcsec/mm and 5.75 arcsec/mm.
The enclosure of the telescope was designed and engineered by the
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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office of
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer John Merrill. The fir ...
.
At the dedication in 1962, Dr. Waterman read a letter from President
John F Kennedy starting with:
Instruments
The third mirror of the main telescope which sends the light down into the observing room can be moved above three different positions. Two of these have a vacuum
spectrograph beneath them, one of 18 meter deep and the other 4 meter deep with lower resolution but higher light throughput. These two spectrographs are able to rotate to compensate for the rotation of the image caused by the use of a heliostat. The third position can only be equipped with a static optical table with no image rotation correction and is therefore rarely used.
The auxiliary telescopes can only be used for imaging on static optical tables and do not provide image rotation correction.
NSF divestment and reinvestment
In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it would be divesting from the McMath-Pierce solar observatory. The operator, known as
National Solar Observatory
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 headq ...
, began accepting proposals from new potential operators. A concept for retrofitting by the Kitt Peak visitor center manager was first provided to the NSF for consideration in July 2017. That concept was ultimately developed into a funding proposal to the NSF, submitted again in May 2018. This proposal was awarded in September 2018 by the NSF to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, the organization that operates Kitt Peak National Observatory on behalf of the NSF.
See also
*
List of solar telescopes
This is a list of solar telescopes built in various countries around the world. A solar telescope is a specialized telescope that is used to observe the Sun.
This list contains ground-based professional observatory telescopes at optical wavelengt ...
*
Lists of telescopes
This is a list of lists of telescopes.
* List of astronomical interferometers at visible and infrared wavelengths
*List of astronomical observatories
*List of highest astronomical observatories
*List of large optical telescopes
* List of largest ...
*
List of largest optical reflecting telescopes
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is a scientific facility for studies of the sun at Haleakala Observatory on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Known as the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) until 2013, it was named after Daniel K. ...
(Major new solar telescope project of the early 21st century)
References
External links
*
Kitt Peak virtual tour: McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope"McMath Solar Telescope of the Kitt Peak National Observatory", A. K. Pierce, ''Applied Optics'', 3, 1337–1346, 1964.Adaptive optics at the McMath–Pierce telescope
{{DEFAULTSORT:McMath-Pierce solar telescope
Astronomical observatories in Arizona
Buildings and structures in Pima County, Arizona
Solar telescopes
1962 establishments in Arizona
American inventions
Kitt Peak National Observatory
Fazlur Khan buildings