University of Glasgow lends support to solar super-telescope initiative

The University of Glasgow has joined a consortium of eight UK universities and associated businesses to build the cameras for a $344 million super-telescope in Hawaii. The Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), which will make its first observations in 2019, is being constructed by the US National Solar Observatory on Haleakala mountain in Maui, Hawaii. With a four-metre diameter main mirror, the telescope will be able to image the Sun in unprecedented detail, equivalent to examining a £1 coin from 100 km away. DKIST will address fundamental questions at the core of contemporary solar physics. It will do this via high-speed (sub-second) imaging, spectroscopic and magnetic measurements of the solar photosphere, chromosphere and corona. DKIST will be mainly funded by the US National Science Foundation. Professor Lyndsay Fletcher of the University of Glasgow's School of Physics and Astronomy is a member of the DKIST Science Working Group.