In order to study the solar corona during eclipses, a new telescope was constructed. Three coronal images were obtained simultaneously through a single objective of the telescope as the coronal radiation passed through three polarizers (whose transmission directions were turned 0°, 60°, and 120°in the chosen direction); one image was obtained without a polarizer. The telescope was used to observe the solar corona during the eclipse of 1 August 2008. We obtained the distributions of polarization brightness, K-corona brightness, the degree of K-corona polarization and the total polarization degree; the polarization direction, depending on the latitude and radius in the plane of the sky, was also obtained. We calculated the radial distributions of electron density depending on the latitude. The properties of all these distributions were compared for different coronal structures. We determined the temperature of the coronal plasma in different coronal structures assuming hydrostatic equilibrium.

No abstract

One of the most important problems of modern solar physics is the observation of the small-scale structure of the solar atmosphere at various heights (including the chromosphere and corona) in different spectral lines. Such observations can be made only with large solar telescopes whose main mirror has a diameter of at least 3 m. Currently, several large solar telescopes are under construction or development in the world. In 2013 in Russia, the work began on the development of a national large solar telescope with a mirror 3 m in diameter (LST-3), which is a part (subproject) of the National Heliogeophysical Complex of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The telescope is planned to be located in the Sayan Solar Observatory at an altitude of more than 2000 m. The choice was made in favor of the classic axisymmetric Gregory optical layout on an alt-azimuth mount. The scientific equipment of LST-3 will consist of several systems of narrow-band tunable filters and spectrographs for various wave ranges. The equipment will be placed both in the main coude focus on a rotating platform and in the Nasmyth focus. To achieve a diffraction resolution, high-order adaptive optics (AO) will be used. It is assumed that with a certain modification of the optical configuration, LST-3 will work as a 0.7 m mirror coronograph in near infrared lines and can also be used for observing astrophysical objects in the nighttime.

No abstract

No abstract