A Correlation Tracker for Solar Fine Scale Studies

A solar feature correlation tracker was designed, built, and successfully tested in a joint effort of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Sunspot, USA, and the Kiepenheuer Institut (KIS), Freiburg, Germany. The purpose of the system is stabilizing image motion which is caused by telescope shake and by seeing at the post-focus instruments of the NSO and KIS vacuum tower telescopes in Sunspot and in Izaņa. The tracker system features a matrix diode array as detector, fast digital processors, and an agile mirror as the optical active element. The processor consists of commercial and in-house built hardware. A more detailed description of the system is in press[4].