The Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope is a unique vertical-axis solar telescope, located at the National Solar Observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico. The optical path starts at a heliostat on top of a 136-foot-tall (41 m) tower and continues 193 feet (58.8 m) more underground to the primary mirror. It then returns to one of six quartz optical windows in the floor of an optical laboratory at ground level. The optics are evacuated to eliminate distortion due to convection in the telescope that would otherwise be caused by the great heat produced by focusing the light of the sun.
A unique feature of the telescope is its approach to image derotation: the entire 100-metre-long (330 ft) telescope and 40-foot-diameter (12 m) optics lab, 250 tons total, rotates suspended from a mercury float bearing at the top of the tower.
Originally the Vacuum Tower Telescope at Sacramento Peak, it was renamed in 1998 in honor of the retiring solar astronomer Richard B. Dunn who was the driving force behind its construction. The lowest excavated point (the bottom of the sump) is 228 feet (69.5 m) below ground.
Read more about Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope: See Also, References
Famous quotes containing the words richard b, richard, dunn, solar and/or telescope:
“When I played drunks I had to remain sober because I didn’t know how to play them when I was drunk.”
—Richard Burton (1925–1984)
“In politics, victory is never total.”
—Donald Freed, U.S. screenwriter, and Arnold M. Stone. Robert Altman. Richard Nixon (Philip Baker Hall)
“Harry’s an artist without an art ... groping for the right lever, for the means with which to express himself.”
—Jo Eisinger, and Jules Dassin. Adam Dunn (Hugh Marlowe)
“Senta: These boats, sir, what are they for?
Hamar: They are solar boats for Pharaoh to use after his death. They’re the means by which Pharaoh will journey across the skies with the sun, with the god Horus. Each day they will sail from east to west, and each night Pharaoh will return to the east by the river which runs underneath the earth.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“The telescope at one end of his beat,
And at the other end the microscope....”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)