McMath-Pierce telescope. Top of the tower of the McMath-Pierce solar telescope at the Kitt Peak observatory in Arizona, USA. This is the world's large

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McMath-Pierce telescope. Top of the tower of the McMath-Pierce solar telescope at the Kitt Peak observatory in Arizona, USA. This is the world's largest solar telescope. It has a Sun- tracking mirror (heliostat, upper centre) at the top of a 30-metre tower. The mirror reflects sunlight down a 152-metre long diagonal optical tunnel. Deep underground is a metre focus mirror; this reflects the light half way back up the tunnel to a further mirror which directs the light down into an underground observing room. The vertical bars seen here are a wind shield.

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Size: 6000px × 2687px
Photo credit: © DAVID PARKER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: astronomy, astrophysics, kitt, mcmath, peak, research, solar, sun, tel., telescope