A new telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory has captured the most detailed visible light image ever of a sunspot. The 1.6 meter, generically named NST -- for New Solar Telescope -- has remarkably clear seeing thanks to its location on a pristine mountain lake in Southern California, and also benefited from adaptive optics to generate the image. While the image has remarkable resolution of about a 50-mile section of the sun's surface, the technology is a test-bed for an even more ambitious project called the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope , which is expected to be completed in the coming decade. From the press release : "The new telescope now feeds a high-order adaptive optics system, which in turn feeds the next generation of technologies for measuring magnetic fields and dynamic events using visible and infrared light..." "The new optical system will allow the researchers to increase the distortion-free field of view to allow for b
brought to you by the American Physical Society