The High Altitude Observatory and the COSMO K-coronagraph project have funded a new solar dome at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesa Lab. The new dome is the same size (16.5 feet diameter) as the large dome at MLSO and will house the HAO solar-pointed spar, which is a duplicate of the MLSO spar. This new facility will be used to test and calibrate the COSMO K-coronagraph before it is deployed to MLSO in early 2013.

Coronal Multichannel Polarimeter (CoMP) data are now available from the MLSO data calendar. Expect the number of days with processed data to increase in the coming weeks, so check back often!

On June 5th, MLSO observed the last transit of Venus in our lifetimes! Visit our transit page to view movies taken during the event.

The Chromospheric and Prominence Magnetometer (ChroMag) prototype optics under test on a lab bench at HAO. Monochromatic green light is being passed through 88mm of calcite. This is the thickest stage in ChroMag. The fringes are used to test the alignment of the optical elements and the crystal axes. ChroMag is one of the planned suite of three instruments of HAO’s Coronal Magnetism Solar Observatory (COSMO), and will be used for solar physics research and space weather applications.