Phase III of the USO Solar Vector Magnetograph

Abstract

The Solar Vector Magnetograph (SVM) is a modern imaging spectropolarimeter installed at Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO). Earlier phases saw the development of the instrument using off-the-shelf components with in-house software development. Subsequently, improvements were done in the opto-mechanical design of the sub-systems and the telescope tracking system. The third phase of the instrument development saw three major improvements, these include: (i) installation of a web-camera based telescope guiding system, developed in-house, (ii) high-cadence spectropolarimetry using Liquid Crystal Variable Retarders and a fast CCD camera and (iii)inclusion of Na D1 line with regular photospheric Fe 630.2 nm line for chromospheric observations.