Coudé Lab Visible Broadband Imager: The Visible Broadband Imager (VBI)-blue channel’s feed optics are backdropped by the Facility Instrument Distribution Optics (FIDO). The VBI takes extremely high spatial resolution images of the solar surface and low atmosphere. The FIDO utilizes a suite of beamsplitters, windows, and mirrors to distribute light to the telescope’s science instruments.

Coudé Lab Wavefront Correction System: Foreground: In the facility’s instrument laboratory, called the “Coudé Lab”, beam splitters and feed optics channel light into the wavefront correction system, part of the telescope’s adaptive optics infrastructure. The wavefront correction system morphs the shape of the telescope’s “deformable mirror” 2000 times a second in order to counteract turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere that would otherwise distort the incoming light beam. The wavefront correction system’s fore optics are pictured. More info on the Coudé https://nso.edu/telescopes/dkist/fact-sheets/rotating-instrument-lab/ More on AO: https://nso.edu/telescopes/dkist/fact-sheets/dkist-adaptive-optics/

Coudé Lab Wide Shot: The Coudé Lab is a rotating physics lab at the heart of the Inouye Solar Telescope. Sunlight collected by the telescope enters the lab through the ceiling where it is directed to scientific instruments through a pathway of beamsplitters, mirrors, and windows.

Coudé Lab with Light: The Coudé Lab in action, showcasing a solar beam passing through the laboratory’s feed optics.

Inouye Solar Telescope Exterior with Sun: Inouye Solar Telescope with closed aperture near Haleakalā summit, Maui, HI.

Inouye Solar Telescope Exterior: Inouye Solar Telescope with closed aperture near Haleakalā summit, Maui, HI.

Inouye Solar Telescope with open aperture: Inouye Solar Telescope with an open aperture and blue skies near Haleakalā summit, Maui, HI.

Telescope with closed aperture: Inouye Solar Telescope with covered mirrors and closed aperture.

Telescope with NSO staff (center): Thomas Rimmele, Inouye Solar Telescope Associate Director (center), and Matt Mountain, President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (right), stand in front the Inouye Solar Telescope with the back of the 13-ft primary mirror on show.

Telescope with NSO staff (left): Members of the Inouye Solar Telescope team stand before the telescope mount.

Telescope with open aperture: Open aperture view from inside of the telescope room, looking past the secondary mirror.