Ground-based solar telescopes are specialized telescopes used to observe the Sun from Earth's surface. Solar telescopes often have multiple focal lengths, and use a various combination of mirrors such as coelostats, lenses, and tubes for instruments including spectrographs, cameras, or coronagraphs. There are many types of instruments that have been designed to observe Earth's Sun, for example, in the 20th century solar towers were common.

Ground telescopes Optical telescopes Name/Observatory Image Aperture Year(s) Location Country(s) Note(s) Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) 400 cm 2019– Haleakalā, Maui, Hawaii, United States Chinese Large Solar Telescope (CLST) 180 cm 2019– Chengdu, Sichuan, China First light 10 December 2019 GREGOR, Teide Observatory 150 cm 2012– Tenerife, Spain Goode Solar Telescope (GST), Big Bear Solar Observatory 160 cm 2008– California, United States New Vacuum Solar Telescope (NVST), Yunnan Astronomical Observatory 100 cm 2010– Yunnan, China 100 cm vacuum solar telescope Andrei Severny Tower Solar Telescope, Crimean Astrophysical Observatory 90 cm 1954– Crimea Multi-Purpose Automated Solar Telescope, Sayan Solar Observatory 80 cm Mondy, Republic of Buryatia, Russia Located in the mountains at 2000m altitude.http://en.iszf.irk.ru/Main_Page Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics Large Solar Vakuum Telescope, Baikal Astrophysical Observatory 76 cm 1980– Irkutsk Oblast, Russia Located on the Coast of Lake Baikal. Optical and Near-Infrared Solar Eruption Tracer (ONSET), School of Astronomy & Space Science, Nanjing University 3x27.5 cm 2010– Nanjing, China The ONSET consists of four tubes: (1) a near-infrared vacuum tube, with an aperture of 27.5 cm, (2) a chromospheric vacuum tube, with an aperture of 27.5 cm, (3) a WL vacuum tube, with an aperture of 20 cm and (4) a guiding tube. Bulgarian 15-cm Solar Coronagraph, Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory Bulgaria 100 cm 2005– Rozhen, Bulgaria Swedish Solar Telescope (SST), Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 100 cm 2002– La Palma, Spain solarphysics.kva.se The Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope Prairie View Solar Observatory (PVSO) 35 cm 1999– Texas, United States Upgraded Coronal Multi-Channel Polarimeter (UCOMP) 20 cm 2021– Mauna Loa, Hawaii, United States K-Coronagraph (K-COR) 20 cm 2013– Mauna Loa, Hawaii, United States Dutch Open Telescope (DOT), Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 45 cm 1997– La Palma, Spain THÉMIS Solar Telescope, Teide Observatory 90 cm 1996– Tenerife, Spain and Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT), Teide Observatory 70 cm 1989– Tenerife, Spain Hida Domeless Solar Telescope (ja) 60 cm 1979– Takayama, Gifu, Japan Udaipur Solar ObservatoryMASTFull Disk H-alpha TelescopeH-alpha Spar TelescopeCoudé Telescope 50 cm15 cm25 cm15 cm 1976– Udaipur, India Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope (DST), Sacramento Peak 76 cm 1969– Sunspot Solar Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico, United States Solar Observatory Tower Meudon 60 cm 1968– Meudon, France McMath–Pierce solar telescope, KPO 161 cm 1961– Arizona, United States Largest aperture optical and infrared solar telescope for nearly six decadesARIES Observatory 15 cm 1961– Nainital, India Solar Tunnel Telescope, Kodaikanal Solar Observatory 61 cm 1958– Kodaikanal, India 45-cm-Turmteleskop 45 cm 1943– Schauinsland, Germany Gregory Coudé Telescope45 cm 1959- Locarno, Switzerland Operated by the Universitäts-Sternwarte Göttingen until 1984 and by IRSOL after 1984. Solar Tower Telescope by Zeiss 45 cm 1930– Tokyo, Japan Einsteinturm 60 cm 1924– Potsdam, Germany 150-foot tower, Mount Wilson Observatory 30 cm 1912– California, United States Snow Solar Telescope, Mount Wilson Observatory 61 cm 1904– California, United States First solar telescope Lerebour/Grubb-Parsons, Kodaikanal Solar Observatory 20 cm 1901– Kodaikanal, India (1947- ) (1901–1950) 2x7.6 cm 2016 Antarctica Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope, Roque de los Muchachos Observatory 47.5 cm 1985–2000 La Palma, Spain Replaced by the SST Gregory Coude Telescope (GCT) 45 cm 1984–2002 Tenerife, Spain (1984–2002) Replaced by GREGOR Evans Solar Facility (ESF), Sacramento Peak 40 cm 1953–2014 Sunspot Solar Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico, United States Göttinger Sonnenturm (Solar Tower Telescope) 2x15 cm11 cm 1942–2004 Göttingen, Germany 65 cm-Coelostat by Zeiss, feeding light into several small light paths in towerMcMath-Hulbert Observatory 61 cm 1941–1979 Michigan, United States 50-foot tower, McMath-Hulbert Observatory 40 cm 1936–1979 Michigan, United States 10.5 inch, McMath-Hulbert Observatory 26.7 cm 1930–1941 Michigan, United States Replaced by the 24 inch in 1941 Arcetri Solar Tower, Arcetri Observatory 37 cm 1925-2006 Arcetri, Italy Telescopes for the Sun have existed for hundreds of years, this list is not complete and only goes back to 1900.

Potential future optical telescopes Name/Observatory Image Aperture d. Status Location Country(s) Note Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (COSMO) 150 cm proposed National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) 200 cm proposed Merak Village, Ladakh, India Chinese Giant Solar Telescope (CGST) 500–800 cm planned Western part of China European Solar Telescope (EST) 400+ cm planned Canary Islands 15 European countries

Radio telescopes Name/Observatory Image Frequency range Year(s) Location Country(s) Note(s) Chinese Spectral Radioheliograph (CSRH) 0.4 - 2.0 Ghz2.0 - 15 GHz 2013 - Inner Mongolia, China 40x 4.5m dishes - low freq band

60x 2m dishes - high freq band

Radio imaging-spectroscopy observations of the Sun in decimetric and centimetric wavelengths Nançay Radioheliographe (NRH), Nançay Radio Observatory 150–450 MHz Sologne, Centre-Val de Loire, France Expanded Owens Valley Solar Array (EOVSA) 1–18 GHz Sologne, Centre-Val de Loire, France Previously known as the Owens Valley Solar Array (OVSA) before getting an expansion to upgrade its control system and increase the total number of antennas to 15."OVSA Expanstion Project." New Jersey Institute of Technology. Retrieved: 18 June 2017. Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH), Nobeyama Radio Observatory 17 and 34 GHz Minamimaki, Nagano Prefecture, Japan "Nobeyama Radioheliograph." Nobeyama Radio Observatory. Retrieved: 18 June 2017. Nobeyama Radio Polarimeters, Nobeyama Radio Observatory 1, 2, 3.75, 9.4, 17, 35, and 80 GHz Minamimaki, Nagano Prefecture, Japan "Nobeyama Radio Polarimeters." Nobeyama Radio Observatory. Retrieved: 18 June 2017. Siberian Solar Radio Telescope (SSRT) 1983– Republic of Buryatia, Russia Solar Submillimeter Telescope (SST), Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito 212 and 405 GHz 1999– San Juan Province, Argentina SST is the only solar submillimeter telescope currently in operation.Gimenez de Castro, C.G., Raulin, J.-P., Makhmutov, V., Kaufmann, P., Csota, J.E.R., Instantaneous positions of microwave solar bursts: Properties and validity of the multiple beam observations Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser., 140, 3, December II 1999 Polarization Emission of Millimeter Activity at the Sun (POEMAS), Complejo Astronomico El Leoncito 45 and 90 GHz 2011– San Juan Province, Argentina Bleien Radio Observatory 10 MHz–5 GHz 1979– Gränichen, Switzerland Radio Solar Telescope Network (RSTN) 245, 410, 610, 1415, 2695, 4975, 8800 and 15400 MHz Australia; Italy; Massachusetts and Hawaii, United States , , and A series of four radio telescopes located at various locations around the world. Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope 150-450 MHz 2023- Sichuan province 313 parabolic antennas for detection of coronal mass ejection events. Operations started in 2023. Mingantu interplanetary scintillation telescope 327 MHz and 654 MHz 2023- Inner Mongolia interplanetary scintillation telescope, consists of three rotatable cylindrical antennas (140 metres by 40 metres each).

Space Telescopes Solar Space Telescopes are part of the List of heliophysics missions

Other types of solar telescopes There are much smaller commercial and/or amateur telescopes such as Coronado Filters from founder and designer David Lunt, bought by Meade Instruments in 2004 and sells SolarMax solar telescopes up to 8 cmDavid Lunt biography, Solar Filter designer

Most solar observatories observe optically at visible, UV, and near infrared wavelengths, but other things can be observed.

CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST), looks for solar axions from the early 2000s onwards Multi-spectral solar telescope array (MSSTA), a rocket launched payload of UV telescopes in the 1990s Leoncito Astronomical Complex, has a submillimeter wavelength solar telescope.

Razdow Telescope

Further reading BBSO List of large solar telescopes by aperture

See also Solar tower (astronomy) Lists of telescopes

References