An organization for solar astronomy, founded in 1984 and operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. NSO conducts research at two main sites: Kitt Peak, Arizona, and Sacramento Peak Observatory, New Mexico. It also manages the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG). The NSO instruments on Kitt Peak are the McMath–Pierce Solar Telescope; and the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS) facility, opened in 2004. SOLIS consists of three telescopes on one mounting: a 0.5-m Vector-Spectromagnetograph (VSM) to measure magnetic field strength; a 0.14-m Full-Disk Patrol (FDP) to image the Sun in various spectral lines; and an 8-mm Integrated Sunlight Spectrometer (ISS) to record high-precision spectra in visible light. SOLIS is installed on the tower of the former Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope (KPVT), which operated from 1973 to 2003; this is now known as the Kitt Peak SOLIS Tower (KPST). NSO is also lead partner in the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Haleakala, Hawaii. NSO’s headquarters are in Boulder, Colorado.

http://www.nso.edu/ Official observatory website.