COSMO News

Berkey cargo delivered for eclipse observation

MLSO uses helicopters

To prepare for the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse observing, necessary equipment was delivered by helicopter to the MLSO observatory. The externally carried cargo included 80 solar panels, 24 battery packs, 3 inverters, and all associated wiring and mounting materials. 30 flights were launched from a staging location just below the spot where lava destroyed the access road during the volcanic eruption on November 27, 2022, preventing vehicle traffic to the observatory.

UCoMP data on MLSO website.

MLSO UCoMP Science Data Now Available

The Mauna Loa Solar Observatory Upgraded Coronal Multi-Channel Polarimeter (UCoMP) coronagraph science data (version 1.0.1) have now been released to the community via the Mauna Loa web page.

My Corona dancers

COSMOrama's new video — "My Corona"!

The upcoming solar eclipses and excitement of COSMO development have us so giddy that we broke into song (literally). We invite you to watch the result!

Cover of "Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s"

Astro2020 calls out global coronal magnetic measurements as requiring investment

The recent Decadal Survey in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s stated goals that would be supported by COSMO observations.

Damon Burke and Steve Tomczyk of HAO, shown with the COSMO Phase I site survey equipment currently at the NCAR Marshall Field site just south of Boulder Colorado

COSMO Site and Design Advancement Updates

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has provided funding for the final design of the COSMO Large Coronagraph (LC). At 1.5 meter aperture, the LC will be the world’s largest refractive telescope, and will enable observations of the global coronal magnetic fields.

LC Dome

NSF Approves Funding for COSMO Next Stage

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has received funding approval to survey prospective locations for the Coronal Solar Magnetism Observatory (COSMO).

University student explaining the radio telescope experiment

MLSO Honors the Sun at AstroDay West

On October 6th, the MLSO staff participated in AstroDay 2018, an educational outreach event coordinated by the Mauna Kea Observatories. 3,000 people attended. This was the second occurrence of this event, located in Kailua-Kona, on the west side of Hawaii Island. It featured booths and science displays from various local observatories, robotics clubs from numerous schools, and other tech-savvy groups.

Ben Berkey (bearded, lower right) giving tour to 30 people from the International Astronomy Teaching Summit conference

Outreach and Observing at Mauna Loa in Hawaii

Educational outreach is an important and rewarding part of an observer’s job at the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory (MLSO) site located on the flanks of Mauna Loa Mountain at an elevation of 3440 meters in the U.S. state of Hawai’i. MLSO is operated by the High Altitude Observatory (HAO), a division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which is located in Boulder, Colorado.

Domes at MLSO

MLSO Facility gets a new dome!

After 50 years of operation, the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory received a major facelift this week. A new dome has been installed at the site. The old dome was removed Tuesday morning, January 5th, and the new dome was installed before the end of the same day.