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22-539: (Redirected from Solar Tower ) Solar tower may refer to: Solar telescope § Solar tower , a structure used to support equipment for studying the Sun Solar flower tower , a hybrid power generator Solar power tower , a type of solar furnace using a tower to receive the focused sunlight Solar updraft tower , a concept for a power plant that generates electricity from low temperature solar heat Solar chimney ,

44-519: A conventional telescope, an extremely dark filter at the opening of the primary tube is used to reduce the light of the Sun to tolerable levels. Since the full available spectrum is observed, this is known as "white-light" viewing, and the opening filter is called a "white-light filter". The problem is that even reduced, the full spectrum of white light tends to obscure many of the specific features associated with solar activity, such as prominences and details of

66-407: A different filter . These filters can be used at the same time, and allows images to be taken at different wavelengths to be compared. Furthermore, some filters are tunable, allowing observers to take images at several points in the spectral lines . The DOT is an open telescope, which means that the structure is physically open, and the wind can blow through. Because the wind blows along the mirror

88-425: A heat stop is not only to survive this heat load, but also to remain cool enough not to induce any additional turbulence inside the telescope's dome. Professional solar observatories may have main optical elements with very long focal lengths (although not always, Dutch Open Telescope ) and light paths operating in a vacuum or helium to eliminate air motion due to convection inside the telescope. However, this

110-492: A precision of micrometres. The telescope mirror can be upgraded in size to 3/4 of a meter with small modification, and even larger with additional adaptions. Another novel feature of the DOT is the roof which is made of a special polymer fibre which retains its shape after being stretched and does not loosen after time. The shape of the several roof sections are made in such a way that they are always under tension when closed, so it

132-460: A vertical shaft using solar energy to enhance ventilation Solar furnace , a structure that uses concentrated solar power to produce high temperatures, usually for industry STACEE , Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment, to study Cherenkov radiation Solar (room) , a room in many English and French medieval manor houses Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

154-502: Is built on an open framework to allow the wind to pass through the complete structure and provide cooling around the telescope's main mirror. Another solar telescope-specific problem is the heat generated by the tightly-focused sunlight. For this reason, a heat stop is an integral part of the design of solar telescopes. For the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope , the heat load is 2.5 MW/m , with peak powers of 11.4 kW. The goal of such

176-506: Is not possible for apertures over 1 meter, at which the pressure difference at the entrance window of the vacuum tube becomes too large. Therefore, the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope and the EST have active cooling of the dome to minimize the temperature difference between the air inside and outside the telescope. Due to the Sun's narrow path across the sky, some solar telescopes are fixed in position (and are sometimes buried underground), with

198-411: Is stronger (i.e., the sections are saddle-shaped). Patterning and test installation of this specific skin is done in cooperation with the team of Poly-Ned who made more retractable coverings for telescope structures. Example of other similar projects is: GREGOR project on Tenerife. A high UV resistance PVC coated Polyester weave is important for this kind of structures. We call them Textielarchitecture from

220-492: The Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope ). With a main mirror of 45 centimeters, it can reach an 0.2 arcsec resolution for sustained periods. For further optimization of the images, the DOT uses the image despeckle mechanism. It was used to record movies of the 2004 Venus transit . The open design was a departure from vacuum-style solar telescopes, and helped pave the way for bigger solar telescopes. The DOT has 6 cameras, each with

242-402: The chromosphere . Specialized solar telescopes facilitate clear observation of such H-alpha emissions by using a bandwidth filter implemented with a Fabry-Perot etalon . A solar tower is a structure used to support equipment for studying the Sun, and is typically part of solar telescope designs. Solar tower observatories are also called vacuum tower telescopes. Solar towers are used to raise

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264-542: The Dutch ground. The despeckle algorithm that improves the image quality allows observers to reach the diffraction limit of the telescope more often than the seeing would normally allow. The despeckle takes 100 images of the same object (e.g., a granule ), but each with a temporal distance such that the atmosphere has changed drastically, but the object has not. Then by using statistics and high powered computing (a 35 dual- Xeon computer-cluster powers these despeckle algorithms)

286-579: The Earth's surface due to the absorption of the atmosphere: In the field of amateur astronomy there are many methods used to observe the Sun. Amateurs use everything from simple systems to project the Sun on a piece of white paper, light blocking filters , Herschel wedges which redirect 95% of the light and heat away from the eyepiece, up to hydrogen-alpha filter systems and even home built spectrohelioscopes . In contrast to professional telescopes, amateur solar telescopes are usually much smaller. With

308-650: The Solar Tower Atmospheric Cherenkov Effect Experiment ( STACEE ), which is being used to study Cherenkov radiation , and the Weizmann Institute solar power tower . Other solar telescopes that have solar towers are Richard B. Dunn Solar Telescope , Solar Observatory Tower Meudon and others. Dutch Open Telescope The Dutch Open Telescope (DOT) is an optical solar telescope located on Roque de los Muchachos Observatory , La Palma (near

330-441: The air has a more or less constant temperature, and this prevents seeing . Conventional telescope designs have the problem that hot air from the ground (which is hotter due to solar heating) is blown up along the tower, and this causes air with different temperatures to blow along the telescope, which degrades the image. A drawback of this open structure is that the skeleton has to be very rigid (do not confuse with strong), to prevent

352-404: The best possible diffraction limit but less so for the associated light-collecting power of other astronomical telescopes. However, recently newer narrower filters and higher framerates have also driven solar telescopes towards photon-starved operations. Both the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope as well as the proposed European Solar Telescope (EST) have larger apertures not only to increase

374-422: The observation equipment above atmospheric turbulence caused by solar heating of the ground and the radiation of the heat into the atmosphere. Traditional observatories do not have to be placed high above ground level, as they do most of their observation at night, when ground radiation is at a minimum. The horizontal Snow solar observatory was built on Mount Wilson in 1904. It was soon found that heat radiation

396-853: The only moving part being a heliostat to track the Sun. One example of this is the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope . The Sun, being the closest star to earth, allows a unique chance to study stellar physics with high-resolution. It was, until the 1990s, 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 . Most solar observatories observe optically at visible, UV, and near infrared wavelengths, but other solar phenomena can be observed — albeit not from

418-409: The resolution, but also to increase the light-collecting power. Because solar telescopes operate during the day, seeing is generally worse than for night-time telescopes, because the ground around the telescope is heated, which causes turbulence and degrades the resolution. To alleviate this, solar telescopes are usually built on towers and the structures are painted white. The Dutch Open Telescope

440-421: The structure from moving in the wind. Normally a solid tower takes care of this (as is done with the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST), for example), or the telescope is placed inside a dome. The DOT does not have this and thus has to be very rigid. The optical part of the telescope is mounted 2 meters in front of the main mirror, and to prevent blurred images, the cameras are mounted very rigidly and can move with

462-521: The title Solar tower . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solar_tower&oldid=1226151037 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Solar telescope#Solar tower Solar telescopes need optics large enough to achieve

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484-549: Was disrupting observations. Almost as soon as the Snow Observatory opened, plans were started for a 60-foot-tall (18 m) tower that opened in 1908 followed by a 150-foot (46 m) tower in 1912. The 60-foot tower is currently used to study helioseismology , while the 150-foot tower is active in UCLA 's Solar Cycle Program. The term has also been used to refer to other structures used for experimental purposes, such as

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