Abstract:
Multi Application Solar Telescope (MAST), a telescope for the detailed study of solar activity, was operationalized at the Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO)
of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), on 16 June
2015. This article traces the history of the conceptualization to realization of MAST and describes its salient features. MAST is an off-axis Gregorian-Coudé
telescope with a 50 cm aperture. The first light backend
instruments include a narrow band polarimetric
imager to map the photospheric and chromospheric
magnetic fields and a multi-slit spectro-polarimeter.
An adaptive optics system is also being developed for
the on-line corrections of the image distortions produced by atmospheric seeing. The main objective of
MAST is to obtain high spatial and temporal resolution observations of solar photospheric and chromospheric activity, with the ultimate goal of predicting
space weather
