A non-profit association specializing inresearch and education in solar astronomy
A non-profit association specializing in
research and education in solar astronomy
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Martin Solar Telescope (25 cm Aperture) and its creator Douglas C. Martin of Helio Research
A fork mount at the left holds the sunlight-collecting end of the telescope end parallel with the earth’s axis. A single mirror (1) collects sunlight and reflects it into a 10-inch (25 cm) objective lens in the short cylindrical tube (2). The beam of sunlight is passed to two “dichroic mirrors” (3) and (4) which pass some wavelengths of light and reflect the wavelengths chosen for our research.
The larger dichroic mirror (3) reflects the sunlight to the smaller one (4) which reflects the beam to the entrance aperture that allows a 10 X 10 arc minutes field-of-view of the Sun (5). The first focus showing the whole Sun is at the entrance aperture. The solar guider is the small telescope on the upper right which receives sunlight from a small mirror adjacent to the objective lens but not seen in the previous picture. This telescope was designed and constructed by Douglas Martin.
Shown next to the telescope are the electronics cabinet, computer and monitor for automated recording of the solar images which are initiated by the observer-of-the-day.
From left to right, the optical components are: Prefilter (1), field lens (2), aperture stop and shutter (3), narrow-band etalon (filter) (4), eyepiece and viewing port enabled by rotating diagonal mirror to reflect beam upward (5), and digital camera (6).