Solar observatory

A solar observatory is an observatory that specializes in monitoring the Sun. As such, they usually have one or more solar telescopes.

Apollo Telescope Mount was a manned solar observatory in orbit on Skylab in the 1970s (ATM at the center of the "X")

The Einstein Tower was a solar observatory in the Albert Einstein Science Park in Potsdam, Germany.

Solar observatories study phenomena associated with the Sun. The Sun, being the closest star to earth, allows a unique chance to study stellar physics with high-resolution. It was, until the 1990s,[1] the only star whose surface had been resolved. General topics that interest a solar astronomer are its 11-year periodicity (i.e., the Solar Cycle), sunspots, magnetic field activity (see solar dynamo), solar flares, coronal mass ejections, differential rotation, and plasma physics.

Some examples

See also

References

  1. Burns, D.; Baldwin, J. E.; Boysen, R. C.; Haniff, C. A.; et al. (September 1997). "The surface structure and limb-darkening profile of Betelgeuse". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 290 (1): L11–L16. Bibcode:1997MNRAS.290L..11B. doi:10.1093/mnras/290.1.l11.

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