Large Earth-based Solar Telescope-LEST

The Large Earth-based Solar Telescope (LEST) will be a powerful, next-generation solar telescope with unprecedented angular resolution and highly accurate polarimetry, that will serve the World's community of solar scientists into the next century. The project is run by the LEST Foundation which has its seat at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Being initially a European project (Germany, Israel, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland) the LEST has grown to include also Australia and USA.

The LEST design is underway. The optical design is a 2.4 m aperture, ``polarization-free'' concept based on a modified Gregorian system. An actively controlled NNT-type main mirror, a high precision pointing and tracking system, a helium-filled light path and thin entrance window, together with an integrated Adaptive Optics system, will provide near diffraction-limited performance of the telescope.

LEST will be placed on La Palma, Canary Islands, near the Caldera rim on the Roque de los Muchachos observatory. This site offers superb seeing conditions which will enable LEST to reach its scientific goals.

The construction of LEST will begin early 1993, and the telescope is ready for ``first light'' in 1996.

LEST marks a new era of international cooperation in solar physics and astrophysics.