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The 4-m aperture Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) formerly known as the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) is currently under construction on Haleakalā (Maui, Hawai'i) projected to start operations in 2019. At the time of completion, DKIST will be the largest ground-based solar telescope providing unprecedented resolution and photon collecting power. The DKIST will be equipped with a set of first-light facility-class instruments offering unique imaging, spectroscopic and spectropolarimetric observing opportunities covering the visible to infrared wavelength range. This first-light instrumentation suite will include: a Visible Broadband Imager (VBI) for high-spatial and -temporal resolution imaging of the solar atmosphere; a Visible Spectro-Polarimeter (ViSP) for sensitive and accurate multi-line spectropolarimetry; a Fabry-Perot based Visible Tunable Filter (VTF) for high-spatial resolution spectropolarimetry; a fiber-fed Diffraction-Limited Near Infra-Red Spectro-Polarimeter (DL-NIRSP) for two-dimensional high-spatial resolution spectropolarimetry (simultaneous spatial and spectral information); and a Cryogenic Near Infra-Red Spectro-Polarimeter (Cryo-NIRSP) for coronal magnetic field measurements and on-disk observations of, e.g., the CO lines at 4.7 μm. We will provide an overview of the DKISTs unique capabilities with strong focus on the first-light instrumentation suite, highlight some of the additional properties supporting observations of transient and dynamic solar phenomena, and touch on some operational strategies and the DKIST critical science plan. (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The NST (New Solar Telescope), a 1.6 m clear aperture, off-axis telescope, is in its commissioning phase at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO). It will be the most capable, largest aperture solar telescope in the US until the 4 m ATST (Advanced Technology Solar Telescope) comes on-line late in the next decade. The NST will be outfitted with state-of-the-art scientific instruments at the Nasmyth focus on the telescope floor and in the Coude Lab beneath the telescope. At the Nasmyth focus, several filtergraphs already in routine operation have offered high spatial resolution photometry in TiO 706 nm, Hα 656 nm, G-band 430 nm and the near infrared (NIR), with the aid of a correlation tracker and image reconstruction system. Also, a Cryogenic Infrared Spectrograph (CYRA) is being developed to supply high signal-to-noise-ratio spectrometry and polarimetry spanning 1.0 to 5.0 μm. The Coude Lab instrumentation will include Adaptive Optics (AO), InfraRed Imaging Magnetograph (IRIM), Visible Imaging Magnetograph (VIM), and Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph (FISS). A 308 sub-aperture (349-actuator deformable mirror) AO system will enable nearly diffraction limited observations over the NST's principal operating wavelengths from 0.4 μm through 1.7 μm. IRIM and VIM are Fabry-Perot based narrow-band tunable filters, which provide high resolution two-dimensional spectroscopic and polarimetric imaging in the NIR and visible respectively. FISS is a collaboration between BBSO and Seoul National University focussing on chromosphere dynamics. This paper reports the up-to-date progress on these instruments including an overview of each instrument and details of the current state of design, integration, calibration and setup/testing on the NST (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

A high-order Adaptive Optical (AO) system for the 65 cm vacuum telescope of the Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) is presented. The Coude-exit of the telescope has been modified to accommodate the AO system and two imaging magnetograph systems for visible-light and near infrared (NIR) observations. A small elliptical tip/tilt mirror directs the light into an optical laboratory on the observatory's 2nd floor just below the observing floor. A deformable mirror (DM) with 77 mm diameter is located on an optical table where it serves two wave-front sensors (WFS), a correlation tracker (CT) and Shack-Hartman (SH) sensor for the high-order AO system, and the scientific channels with the imaging magnetographs. The two-axis tip/tilt platform has a resonance frequency around 3.3 kHz and tilt range of about 2 mrad, which corresponds to about 25″ in the sky. Based on 32 × 32 pixel images, the CT detects image displacements between a reference frame and real-time frames at a rate of 2 kHz. High-order wave-front aberrations are detected in the SH WFS channel from slope measurements derived from 76 sub-apertures, which are recorded with 1,280 × 1,024 pixel Complex Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) camera manufactured by Photobit camera. In the 4 × 4 pixel binning mode, the data acquisition rate of the CMOS device is more than 2 kHz. Both visible-light and NIR imaging magnetographs use Fabry-Perot etalons in telecentric configurations for two-dimensional spectro-polarimetry. The optical design of the AO system allows using small aperture prefilters, such as interference or Lyot filters, and 70 mm diameter Fabry-Perot etalons covering a field-of-view (FOV) of about 180″ × 180″.