THEMIS Solar Telescope

The “Télescope Héliographique pour l’Étude du Magnétisme et des Instabilités Solaires” (THEMIS) of CNRS-INSU is a 1-meter-class optical solar telescope, primarily dedicated to studying solar magnetism and the dynamical processes within the Sun’s atmosphere (such as sunspots and solar flares). THEMIS can also perform observation of near-Sun objects such as Mercury and comets.

THEMIS is located at the Teide Observatory of IAC, with a base office in La Laguna, in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain.

New : October : Seminar on THEMIS at the Plasma Physics Laboratory, Paris (FR).

Downloadable posters highlighting recent high-resolution observations of solar active regions by THEMIS

Click for information on:     How to reach THEMIS locations   ;   How to contact the THEMIS team

Overview of telescope status


THEMIS from VTT webcam


Webcam of THEMIS Dome


Latest EUMETSAT RGB image


THEMIS weather page


Last image from
THEMIS full Sun guider


The THEMIS telescope and its science

Observing with THEMIS

THEMIS Scientific research & results

THEMIS image of the month: September 2025

Diagram of THEMIS adaptive optic light-path.

THEMIS design, laid out in the 1980's, predate the revolution of adaptive optics (AO), and hence didn't foresee its installation. AO has since proved to be an indispensable technology of all modern high-resolution telescope. The core of the THEMIS overhaul that took place in the second half of the 2010's had the installation of a simple AO at the core of its objective.

The installation of the THEMIS AO was thus particularly challenging has it requires to deal with the existing available space. The entry prism is thus located just inside the spectrograph container, close to its roof, in a location that is not easily accessible. In addition, as shown in the diagram of TAO, it imposed to place the wavefront sensor optical bench (as well as the scanning mirror) outside of the THEMIS spectrograph container, in a vertical layout.

Past images of the month

THEMIS telescope management

Internal pages for the THEMIS team
Previous THEMIS front page


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themis.txt · Last modified: 2025/10/07 14:52 by etienne
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