Current planning aims at first light for the New Swedish Solar Telescope(NSST) in 2001. The SVST was dismantled on August 28, 2000. The telescope parts arrived in the harbour of Santa Cruz de La Palma on October 13. Assembly of the vacuum tubes and the telescope turret was completed on October 31 as can be seen on the photos of this page.

Installing the vacuum tubes in bad weather. Photo: Rolf Kever.

Lifting the telescope fundament. William Herschel Telescope in background. Photo: Rolf Kever.

The observatory from the south. Atlantic Ocean in background. Photo: Klas Bjelksjö.

The telescope from above. Photo: Rolf Kever.

The NSST will have twice the aperture of it predecessor SVST, thus 0.97 m. The objective lens will be a singlet of fused silica. The telescope will have a Schupmann optical system that gives images free of chromatic aberrations. It may be used for imaging in very narrow wavelength passbands without the Schupmann system.

The NSST will be equipped with an adaptive optics system to allow for diffraction-limited imaging, spectroscopy and polarimetry. Apart from solar studies, it will be used for high-resolution observations of other solar-system objects such as the planet Mercury.

The cost is estimated to 16 MSEK and funding has been received from The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg's Memorial Fund, The Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, The LEST Foundation, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The telescope concept is described in the paper provided in two formats below.

• The New Swedish Solar Telescope (PostScript)
• The New Swedish Solar Telescope (html)

Images from the manufacturing process:

• The telescope parts being manufactured at Svenska Bearing AB in Gothenburg.
• The optics being polished at Opteon Oy in Turku, Finland.
• Part of a mirror support system being built at Digitalmekanik AB in Stockholm.
 
Last Revised: 3 November 2000