Solar-C Telescope at 3,052 m (10,010 ft).

Research observatory · Mount Haleakala, Hawaii

Solar-C Telescope

Solar-C Telescope is a research observatory in Mount Haleakala, Hawaii. Solar-C Telescope sits inside Haleakala National Park, a Bortle Class 2 dark sky place.

Solar-C Telescope in brief

Open to the public
No regular public access
Elevation
3,052 m (10,010 ft)
Bortle class
Not yet rated

Official site

Can you visit Solar-C Telescope? No regular public access

No public access.

For telescope views near Solar-C Telescope, see the observatories open to the public and astronomy clubs nearby; clubs hold free public star parties.

Solar-C Telescope
Solar-C Telescope

Telescopes at Solar-C Telescope

0.5m solar telescope.

How dark the sky is at Solar-C Telescope

Solar-C Telescope has no Bortle rating in the list yet. The scale below shows what each class looks like.

1 mag 8.0 21.99+ 2 mag 7.5 21.89+ 3 mag 7.0 21.69+ 4 mag 6.5 20.49+ 5 mag 6.0 19.50+ 6 mag 5.5 18.94+ 7 mag 5.0 18.38+ 8 mag 4.5 18.00+ 9 mag 4.0
The Bortle scale. Each panel shows the class number, the faintest star the naked eye reaches at the zenith, and the darkest-edge sky brightness reading of that class in mag/arcsec².

Sky brightness and class come from the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness (Falchi et al. 2016, CC BY-NC 4.0), with natural skyglow added, at the coordinates below. Research telescopes are often sited on mountains above the haze, so the real sky can be darker than the map suggests.

Solar-C Telescope among the observatories of Hawaii

Ha'ena State Park Haleakala National Park Hanauma Bay Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Kalahaku Overlook Kau Forest Reserve Kaumahina State Wayside Koke'e State Park Manuka State Wayside Mauna Kea Na Pali-Kona Forest Reserve Pala'au State Park Polihale State Park Polipoli Spring State Recreation Area Pua'a Ka'a State Wayside Wai'anapanapa State Park Wailua Valley State Wayside Waimea Canyon State Park Mauna Loa Observatory Leeward College Observatory KEASA Observatory Gemini North Observatory Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Subaru Telescope James Clerk Maxwell Telescope NASA Infrared Telescope Submillimeter Array Very Long Baseline Array - Mauna Kea Station UH 2.2m Telescope Thirty Meter Telescope (proposed) Pan-STARRS Faulkes Telescope North (LCO 2m) Inouye Solar Telescope Advanced Electro-Optical System Mees Solar Observatory Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (proposed) Haleakala Observatory ATLAS Haleakala Tohoku Telescopes W. M. Keck Observatory Lanihuli Observatory Maunakea Observatories Solar-C Telescope Mount Haleakala, Hawaii Solar-C Telescope Mount Haleakala, Hawaii
Dark sky place Research or private observatory Observatory open to the public

Green dots are observatories open to the public, blue dots research or private sites, squares dark sky places; select one for its page. See Hawaii observatories for the full list.

The coordinates on this page point to Haleakala Observatory site (complex-level, Wikipedia): 20.708°N, 156.257°W.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Open the larger map · Directions. Mountain observatory roads are often gated after dark; go only on a scheduled public night.

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Solar-C Telescope

Solar-C Telescope sits inside Haleakala National Park, a Bortle Class 2 dark sky place. See Haleakala National Park for camping, where to set up and the sky by season.

Nearest dark sky places

PlaceWhereBortleDistance
Haleakala National ParkHawaii21 km (1 mi)
Kalahaku OverlookHawaii24 km (3 mi)
Polipoli Spring State Recreation AreaHawaii310 km (6 mi)
Pua'a Ka'a State WaysideHawaii219 km (12 mi)
Wailua Valley State WaysideHawaii219 km (12 mi)
Kaumahina State WaysideHawaii220 km (13 mi)

Other observatories open to the public within 150 km

  • W. M. Keck ObservatoryMaunakea, Hawaii Island, Hawaii, 128 km (79 mi). Summit Visitors' Gallery inside Keck I open daily 10 am-2:30 pm (4WD above 9,200 ft); no night viewing; headquarters in Waimea
  • Maunakea ObservatoriesMauna Kea, Hawaii, 128 km (80 mi). Maunakea Visitor Information Station (2,800 m) hosts monthly reservation stargazing events; summit domes closed to public except resident KOE tours

Planning a trip? Astrotourism in Hawaii puts the dark sky places, observatories, clubs, star parties, planetariums and science centers of the state on one map, with the best night out worked out.

Solar-C Telescope record

Every value in the observatories dataset for Solar-C Telescope
ID267
NameSolar-C Telescope
Addresssummit
CityMount Haleakala
StateHI
CountryUSA
Websolar.ifa.hawaii.edu/SolarC/
Publicn
Telescope0.5m solar telescope
Elevation3052
Lat20.70830
Lon-156.25710
LatLonSpotHaleakala Observatory site (complex-level, Wikipedia)
StatusActive
StatusNote0.5m coronagraph in the Zodiacal Light Observatory; current activity not confirmed in 2025-2026 sources
PublicNoteNo public access
Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haleakal%C4%81_Observatory
ParkID187
ParkKm1.0

From the site's observatories dataset (observatories_q426). Distances are computed from the coordinates.