The Effects of Atmospheric Dispersion on High-Resolution Solar Spectroscopy

We investigate the effects of atmospheric dispersion on observations of the Sun at the ever-higher spatial resolutions afforded by increased apertures and improved techniques. The problems induced by atmospheric refraction are particularly significant for solar physics because the Sun is often best observed at low elevations, and the effect of the image displacement is not merely a loss of efficiency, but the mixing of information originating from different points on the solar surface. We calculate the magnitude of the atmospheric dispersion for the Sun during the year and examine the problems produced by this dispersion in both spectrographic and filter observations. We describe an observing technique for scanning spectrograph observations that minimizes the effects of the atmospheric dispersion while maintaining a regular scanning geometry. Such an approach could be useful for the new class of high-resolution solar spectrographs, such as SPINOR, POLIS, TRIPPEL, and ViSP

Precession and Nutation of the Earth

International audiencePrecession and nutation of the Earth originate in the tidal forces exerted by the Moon, the Sun, and the planets on the equatorial bulge of the Earth. Discovered respectively in the 2nd century B.C. by Hipparcus and in the 18th century by Bradley, their existence and characteristics were deduced theoretically by Newton for the precession and by d'Alembert for the nutation. After a historical review we explain, both in an intuitive manner and by simple calculations, the gravitational origin and the main characteristics of the precession-nutation. Then we describe in detail two fundamental theories, one using the Lagrangian formalism, the other the Hamiltonian one. A large final part is devoted to successive improvements of the precession-nutation theory in the last decades, both when considering the Earth as a rigid body and when taking into account the small effects of non-rigidity