Proceedings Article | 22 July 2014
Joseph McMullin, Thomas Rimmele, Valentin Martínez Pillet, Thomas Berger, Roberto Casini, Simon Craig, David Elmore, Bret Goodrich, Steve Hegwer, Robert Hubbard, Erik Johansson, Jeffrey Kuhn, Haosheng Lin, William McVeigh, Wolfgang Schmidt, Steve Shimko, Alexandra Tritschler, Mark Warner, Friedrich Wöger
Proc. SPIE. 9145, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes V
KEYWORDS: Observatories, Telescopes, Visible radiation, Astronomy, Solar telescopes, Sun, Adaptive optics, Control systems, Optical fabrication, Solar processes
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST, renamed in December 2013 from the Advanced Technology Solar
Telescope) will be the largest solar facility built when it begins operations in 2019. Designed and developed to meet the
needs of critical high resolution and high sensitivity spectral and polarimetric observations of the Sun, the observatory
will enable key research for the study of solar magnetism and its influence on the solar wind, flares, coronal mass
ejections and solar irradiance variations. The 4-meter class facility will operate over a broad wavelength range (0.38 to
28 microns, initially 0.38 to 5 microns), using a state-of-the-art adaptive optics system to provide diffraction-limited
imaging and the ability to resolve features approximately 25 km on the Sun. Five first-light instruments will be available
at the start of operations: Visible Broadband Imager (VBI; National Solar Observatory), Visible SpectroPolarimeter
(ViSP; NCAR High Altitude Observatory), Visible Tunable Filter (VTF; Kiepenheuer Institut für Sonnenphysik),
Diffraction Limited Near InfraRed SpectroPolarimeter (DL-NIRSP; University of Hawai’i, Institute for Astronomy) and
the Cryogenic Near InfraRed SpectroPolarimeter (Cryo-NIRSP; University of Hawai’i, Institute for Astronomy).
As of mid-2014, the key subsystems have been designed and fabrication is well underway, including the site
construction, which began in December 2012. We provide an update on the development of the facilities both on site at
the Haleakalā Observatories on Maui and the development of components around the world. We present the overall
construction and integration schedule leading to the handover to operations in mid 2019. In addition, we outline the
evolving challenges being met by the project, spanning the full spectrum of issues covering technical, fiscal, and
geographical, that are specific to this project, though with clear counterparts to other large astronomical construction
projects.
