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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.

** The THEMIS team supports the call to French research personnel to co-sign the « White paper on the relevance of the European Solar Telescope (EST) for the French heliophysics community » **

February : Participation of THEMIS at the "OFRAME space weather days 2026" conference in Grenoble (FR).
January : One year visit at THEMIS of PhD student Jorge Romero Castañeda (LPP) in the context of the ANR JET2SB project.
January : Presentation of THEMIS and IBIS at the "Methods and techniques for high-resolution spectro-polarimetry" conference in Freiburg (GER).
November : First screw of the Italian IBIS 2.0 Spectro-imager @ 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

THEMIS image of the month: January 2026

Because of the height of the THEMIS spectrograph, about 50 meters of cables are needed to connect the THEMIS control room with the different systems of the telescope and its instrumentation. These cables are used to power the mount and the different motors, to send commend to the telescope and to receive housekeeping and scientific data. This image of the month presents THEMIS cable reel and ill-known although fundamental element for the operations of THEMIS. A specificity of THEMIS is that the whole THEMIS instrumentation hangs under the THEMIS mount and rotates with it as the telescope tracks the Sun. THEMIS cable reel, located at the 4th floor of the THEMIS building permits to avoid the tearing out of the cables as the telescope rotate. About 6 meters of cable length are “stored” within it, compensating the lengthening of the distance as THEMIS moves.

Past images of the month

THEMIS telescope management

Internal pages for the THEMIS team
Previous THEMIS front page

THEMIS Solar Telescope

Overview of telescope status

The THEMIS telescope and its science

Observing with THEMIS

THEMIS Scientific research & results

THEMIS image of the month: January 2026

THEMIS telescope management