SOLARNET Conference: The Many Scales of the Magnetic Sun

SolarLab is a container-based observatory for full disk observations of the Sun. It will be installed and operated on site of the Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (TLS). SolarLab will be used as a laboratory for instrument development as well as for scientific observations and public outreach. The science and technical requirements for SolarLab are derived from SPRING – a future synoptic solar observing network. Therefore, SolarLab will serve as pathfinder towards a SPRING prototype.
The key infrastructure of SolarLab is a customized 40 feet container that houses the telescope and instruments. A two-mirror polar heliostat directs the beam vertically into the container. Optical tables will carry the telescope equipped with filters, polarimeter, relay optics and detectors. The most important development work is setting up a large tunable Fabry-Pérot interferometer as a two-dimensional spectrometer and develop suitable calibration methods. The installation of the container with the heliostat is foreseen in fall 2023. The start of the lab operation is envisioned for early 2024.
Our poster gives an overview on the scientific and technical requirements. We present the current status of the development and plans for the near future.