Solar Telescope

A vertical solar telescope feeds a white-light image of the Sun into the undergraduate astronomy laboratory. The coelestat mirror system shown here tracks the daily motion of the Sun and directs light downward into the telescope supported from the ceiling of the astronomy lab.

Students also use a solar flare monitor at Moore Observatory which records very low frequency (VLF) radio reception from a stable transmitter in Cutler, Maine. Conditions in the ionosphere responsible for the strength of the signal are very sensitive to X-ray flux from solar flares and sudden x-ray emitting events outside the solar system, and rapidly alter the received signal.