Norikura Solar Observatory

⟨Notice⟩ Norikura Solar Observatory of NAOJ was closed in 2009 and now is operated by the headquarters of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences. The following descrition only shows the status before 2009 and is no longer applicable.

Norikura Solar Observatory was established in 1949 as the first off-campus facility of Tokyo Astronomical Observatory, University of Tokyo. It is located in Northern Japan Alps, at the 2876-m summit of Norikura Mountain. The observatory has three coronagraphs;

- 10cm Coronagraph,

- 25cm Coronagraph, and

- 10cm New Coronagraph.

The coronagraph is a specially-designed telescope to observe the solar corona without waiting for infrequent total eclipses. A metal occulting disk at the focal plane blocks the sun's body and makes an artificial eclipse in the telescope. Even with such an instrument, the corona that is as faint as one millionth of the sun itself can only be observed from high mountains with clear sky. Our 25cm-aperture coronagraph and attached spectrograph are open to outside users and joint observational proposals are welcome.
Summer at Norikura is comfortable (around 10 degrees C in daytime) and the access is easy. However, life at Norikura in winter is very difficult, with heavy snow and low temperature (-20 degrees or even less). Observing crews spend 2-3 weeks there, relying on stored food, and water made from snow. The electricity is provided by three power generators of 150 kVA.

- The Milky Way and airglow above Norikura (courtesy of Communications Research Laboratory)

- 'Selected Solar H-alpha Photographs' by H.Morishita (1987)

- Coronagraphs in the World

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Norikura Solar Observatory
     longitude: 137°33'19", latitude: 36°06'49", altitude: 2876m

     address:
          Mt.Norikura, Azumi, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano Prefecture 390-1500
          Mt.Norikura, Niukawa-cho, Takayama-shi, Gifu Prefecture 506-2100