Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) is a solar observatory operated by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). It is located on the north shore of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains of southwestern San Bernardino County, California (US), about 100 kilometers east of downtown Los Angeles.
HistoryBBSO was founded by the California Institute of Technology in 1969. In 1997, NJIT took over operations of the observatory. The observatory sits on a causeway extending into Big Bear Lake, which provides excellent seeing conditions due to the stabilizing effect of the water on the atmosphere.
The Goode Solar Telescope (GST)The Goode Solar Telescope (GST), originally named the New Solar Telescope (NST), is a 1.6-meter clear-aperture off-axis Gregorian solar telescope. It is one of the largest solar telescopes in the world and provides diffraction-limited observations of the Sun.
The GST is equipped with adaptive optics that correct for atmospheric turbulence, enabling observations of solar features as small as 50 kilometers on the Sun's surface. Key instruments include:
- NIRIS — Near-Infrared Imaging Spectropolarimeter
- BFI — Broadband Filter Imager
- FISS — Fast Imaging Solar Spectrograph
BBSO's research focuses on understanding the dynamic Sun, including:
- Intermittency in solar convection
- Solar oscillations
- Space weather and its impact
- Full Disk Hα observations (FDHA)
- Earthshine measurements
Big Bear Solar Observatory
40386 North Shore Drive
Big Bear City, CA 92314
Phone: 909-866-5791 ext. 210
Acknowledgements: BBSO operation is supported by US NSF AGS-2309939 grant and New Jersey Institute of Technology. GST operation is partly supported by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and the Seoul National University.
