Big Bear Solar Observatory

The Big Bear Solar Observatory ( BBSO ) is a solar observatory in the north of Big Bear Lake in the mountains of San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California.

The observatory was built by the California Institute of Technology on an artificial peninsula in 1969. His largest telescope was a 65 -cm vacuum telescope, which was then replaced by a 1.6 -meter telescope, the New Solar Telescope ( NST) before 2009. First light images of the NST were published in August 2010. The NST has Adaptive optics and is currently the largest ground-based solar telescope. In addition, two smaller telescopes at the Big Bear Solar Observatory operated, including an H -alpha telescope, " New full disk H -alpha Telescope" and an additional tool for the study of Earthshine.