Proceedings Article | 27 July 2016
Changhui Rao, Naiting Gu, Lei Zhu, Cheng Li, Jinglong Huang, Yuntao Cheng, Yangyi Liu, Benxi Yao, Zhiyong Wang, Xuedong Cao, Ming Zhang, Lanqiang Zhang, Hong Liu, Yongjian Wan, Hao Xian, Wenli Ma
KEYWORDS: Telescopes, Mirrors, Solar telescopes, Magnetism, Control systems, Solar telescopes, Adaptive optics, Solar processes, Optical design, Polishing, Optical components
In order to study some special solar activities, such as the emergence, evolution and disappearance progress of the sunspot and magnetic flux, and the key role of magnetic field, a new 1.8-meter size high-resolution solar telescope —the CLST will be built in the Institute of Optics and Electronics(IOE), Chinese Academy of Science(CAS), which locates in Chengdu, China. The CLST has a classic Gregorian configuration, alt-azimuth mount, retractable dome. Besides that, a large mechanical de-rotator will be used to cancel the image rotation, and finally it will cooperate with another kind of mechanical de-rotator to cancel both of the pupil rotation and image rotation. Φ3 arc-minute field of view will help the CLST to observe the whole solar activity region, and if necessary the FOV can be enlarged to Φ 6 arc-minute. A 1.8m primary mirror with honeycomb sandwiches structure made by using ULE material will reduce about 70% of weight. Thermal controlling system will also be equipped for the CLST, which including Heat-Stop, primary mirror, tube truss, mount and the other optics elements. An experimental system for validating thermal controlling of primary mirror and Heat-Stop has been built, and the temperature tracking results will be illustrated in this paper. Currently, we have finished the detailed design of the CLST, and some important components also have been manufactured and finished. In this paper, we describe some important progresses and the latest status of the CLST project during these two years.