Solar telescope

A telescope designed to observe the Sun using optics and filters that control intense sunlight. Specialized instruments reveal features such as sunspots, prominences, and the solar atmosphere.

Solar filter: An optical filter that attenuates sunlight to permit safe observation of the Sun. It reduces incoming solar energy before it can damage instruments or eyes.
Solar photosphere: The visible layer of the Sun from which most optical sunlight escapes. White-light solar observations chiefly record this layer and its sunspots.
Coronagraph: An instrument that blocks direct light from a bright source to reveal faint structures around it. It suppresses the solar disk to observe the much fainter corona.
Galileo Galilei: An Italian astronomer and physicist who used telescopic observations to study the Sun, Moon, and planets. His telescopic sunspot observations helped establish systematic study of the solar disk.
Hydrogen-alpha: A spectral line of hydrogen at 656.3 nanometers, prominent in emission from solar chromosphere features. Filters centered on this line reveal prominences and chromospheric structures.
Solar chromosphere: A relatively thin atmospheric layer above the Sun’s photosphere, visible in selected spectral lines. Hydrogen-alpha and calcium K observations make this layer accessible.
Solar observatory: A facility equipped to observe the Sun with instruments, often across multiple wavelengths. A solar telescope is one instrument within a broader observing facility.
Christoph Scheiner: A German Jesuit astronomer who independently observed and published studies of sunspots in the early seventeenth century. His early solar observations helped develop telescopic study of sunspots.
Calcium K line: A strong ionized-calcium spectral line near 393.4 nanometers, used to study the solar chromosphere and photosphere. Calcium K filters isolate bright magnetic structures near the Sun’s visible surface.
Solar corona: The Sun’s extended outer atmosphere, visible in ordinary light mainly during a total solar eclipse. Coronagraphs and eclipse observations reveal this faint region beside the bright solar disk.

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