Conference support for the meeting "Science with Large Solar Telescopes" to be held in Freiburg, Germany, October 14-16, 2009
Two new large telescopes to study our local star (the sun) are in the planning stages. The ATST (Advanced Solar Technology Telescope) is a project of the National Solar Observatory and has just received initial construction funding from NSF. The European Solar Telescope is still under discussion and design by the European Association for Solar Telescopes (EAST). These two telescopes will bring new enabling technologies and capabilities to the study of the sun. A conference will be held to bring the two scientific, engineering, and technical teams together to discuss the scientific and technical capabilities of their respective new telescopes. The meeting is intended to foster collaboration for joint development of techniques and instrumentation. The conference is supported, in part, by the Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program of NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences.
