The largest solar telescope in Europe

Appointment the photo gallery of Northern Lights, name is Gregor and there is just been installed at the Observatorio del Teide of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC). Besides being the solar telescope largest in Europe, this is the third in size in the world. Has an aperture of 1.5 meters, which together with the new adaptive optics system that compensates for atmospheric turbulence, achieves picture quality that, until now, no solar telescope had gained ground, both in the visible range and in the infrared.

The spatial resolution, spectral and resulting time allows researchers to follow the physical processes in the Sun's surface at scales as small as 70 km. Its advanced technology will allow the scientific community to study the Sun with an unprecedented level of detail to date. Not only can better understand the physical processes that occur in the majority of stars in the universe, but also deal with earthly: solar activity affects and even damage satellites and power grids in different regions of the Earth. Deepen their knowledge can help mitigate these problems of high economic impact. The telescope is designed to make observations of the solar photosphere; the layer from which most of the light and heat that are received on Earth- and the chromospheres, the solar atmosphere layer that sits just above the previous one. But also be used during the night will be monitored 'distant suns' to find out if they have the same cyclic behavior that our star.