Sacramento Peak Observatory

A solar observatory in New Mexico, forming part of the facilities of the US National Solar Observatory. The observatory site, known as "Sunspot", is in the Lincoln National Forest at a height of 2,800 metres (9,200 feet). It was founded in 1951 as the Upper Air Research Observatory of the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories to predict disturbances to, for example, communications, caused by solar activity. In 1976, the observatory was transferred to the National Science Foundation and, in 1984, it became part of the National Solar Observatory section of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories. The largest instrument is a vacuum tower telescope. It is used to observe small-scale solar features and has a resolving power better than a quarter of an arc second. The John W. Evans Solar Facility (named after the first director) contains various instruments including a 40-centimetre (16-inch) coronagraph and a 30-centimetre (12-inch) coelostat, which can feed solar radiation to several instruments.