EAST-Educational Adaptive-optics Solar Telescope
Changhui Rao, Xuejun Rao, Zhimao Du, Hua Bao, Cheng Li, Jinlong Huang, Youming Guo, Libo Zhong, Qing Lin, Xin Ge, Jinsheng Yang, Xinlong Fan, Yangyi Liu, Dan Jia, Xin Li, Mei Li, Ming Zhang, Yuntao Cheng, Jiahui Zhou, Jiawen Yao, Lanqiang Zhang, Naiting Gu
Abstract
Abstract For the public having a better understanding of solar activities, the Educational Adaptive-optics Solar Telescope (EAST) was built in July 2021 and is located at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum. The EAST consists of a 65 cm aperture solar telescope with a 177-element adaptive optics system and two-channel high resolution imaging system at the H α and TiO bands, in addition to three full disk solar telescopes at Ca K, H α and TiO bands equipped on the tube of the main telescope. In this paper, the configuration of the EAST is described. Its performance and on-sky observational results are presented. The EAST, to our knowledge, is the most advanced solar telescope for the popularization of science in the world. Due to its excellent performance, the data acquired by the EAST can also be used for research on solar physics and space weather prediction.