For better understanding and forecasting of the solar activity and the corresponding impacts human technologies and life on earth, the high resolution observations for Sun are needed. The Chinese Large Solar Telescope (CLST) with 1.8 m aperture is being built. The CLST is a classic Gregorian configuration telescope with open structure, alt-azimuth mount, retractable dome, and a large mechanical de-rotator. The optical system with all reflective design has the field of view of larger than 3 arc-minute. The 1.8 m primary mirror is a honeycomb sandwiches fused silica lightweight mirror with ULE material and active cooling. The adaptive optics system will be developed to provide the capability for diffraction limited observations at visible wavelengths. The CLST design and development phase began in 2011 and 2012 respectively. We plan for the CLST’s starting of commission in 2017. A multi-wavelength tomographic imaging system with seven wavelengths range from visible to near-infrared wavelength is considered as the first light scientific instruments. In this paper the main system configuration and the corresponding post focal instruments are described. Furthermore, the latest progress and current status of the CLST are also reported.

Date Published: 22 July 2014
PDF: 14 pages
Proc. SPIE 9145, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V, 914529 (22 July 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2054844

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9145:
Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V
Larry M. Stepp; Roberto Gilmozzi; Helen J. Hall, Editor(s)