Big Bear Solar Observatory Snaps the Most Detailed Pic of a Sunspot Ever

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:17:57 +0000

Researchers at Big Bear Solar Observatory have tuned their adaptive optics array and achieved first light, capturing this image of a sunspot that is now the most detailed ever captured in visible light. The image was captured with Big Bear’s New Solar Telescope (NST), a brand new instrument (as the name implies) with a resolution of just 50 miles on the sun’s surface.

The NST is the precursor to an even-larger telescope, the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST), which will be constructed over the next decade, allowing Big Bear researchers to build a new kind of adaptive optics system known as multi-conjugate adaptive optics, that should provide them with a clear, distortion-free means of observing the sun from Earth in unrivaled detail.

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Solar-Powered Plane, Takes Off For 24-Hour Test Flight

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:32:32 +0000

An experimental solar-powered plane took off from western Switzerland on Wednesday for a 24-hour test flight – a key step in a historic effort to one day circle the globe using only energy collected from the sun.

The plane with its 262.5-foot (80-meter) wingspan left Payerne airfield shortly before 7 a.m. after overcoming an equipment problem that delayed a previous attempt, the Solar Impulse team said.

Clear blue skies on Wednesday allowed the prototype aircraft to soak up plenty of solar energy as it flew over the Jura mountains west of the Swiss Alps. The big question, however, was whether the plane’s 12,000 solar cells could fill up its batteries with enough energy so the plane could fly through the night.

(source)

Orbital Blue » solar

Big Bear Solar Observatory Snaps the Most Detailed Pic of a Sunspot Ever

Solar-Powered Plane, Takes Off For 24-Hour Test Flight