You don’t hear too much about solar astronomy these days–and considering what all’s going on out there, you can see why.  The average person has a lot more on their plate to worry about than what the sun’s doing, unless of course it’s about to explode or something, and then it’s much worse than everyone saw coming.  But anyway–the part that means something to us is that there’s a new solar telescope in town, and it’s going to shake up the entire solar astronomy landscape.

So here’s the salient–the former largest solar telescope in the world, the McMath-Pierce, was located on Kitt Peak near Tucson since the sixties.  But now, there’s a NEW largest telescope, the fourteen story tall Advanced Technology Solar Telescope.

As a result, most of the funding for solar astronomy is going over to the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope and may well destroy funding for the McMath-Pierce and others like the Dunn Telescope.

Most of the researchers, however, will keep their jobs due to some administrative paper shuffling and a whole lot of relocation, but still.  There’s a LOT of stuff going on in the solar research industry, and considering the amounts of cash flowing around, it’s worth keeping an eye on.

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3. Telescope Cameras
4. James Webb Space Telescope For NASA
5. Celestron 21024 FirstScope Telescope