Short story of stratospheric and ground-based observations of solar photosphere with high angular resolution in the 70s of the XX century at the Pulkovo Observatory

TL;DR

This paper reviews high angular resolution solar observations from the 1970s at Pulkovo Observatory, highlighting the historical significance and technological advancements of the Saturn stratospheric and ground-based telescopes.

Contribution

It provides a detailed account of the early high-resolution solar observations and technological developments at Pulkovo Observatory, which are largely unknown globally.

Findings

Record-breaking angular resolution photographs and spectra from the 1970s.

Development of high spatial resolution technologies in heliophysics.

Historical insights into Pulkovo's solar observation efforts.

Abstract

In the 70s of the last century, the stratospheric solar observatory "Saturn" with a 100cm telescope was launched at Pulkovo Observatory. The photographs and spectra obtained on it for more than 45 years remained record-breaking in angular resolution. Then, for ground-based observations of Sun fine structure in Pamir at an altitude of 4.5 km, a 50 cm open-type Pulkovo mobile telescope was installed. Photographs and spectra obtained with the Saturn telescope for the visible range were an important step in the development of high spatial resolution technologies in heliophysics. However, to date, the details of these studies remain unknown to the global scientific community. In this paper, an attempt is made to partially fill this gap.