| The soft X-ray
telescope (SXT) provides, for the first time, the opportunity to image
the Sun in X-rays over a long period of time with both high temporal and
spatial resolution. It gives Yohkoh and important capability for
solar science beyond the study of flares, the primary objective of the
mission. The SXT instrument was jointly developed by the Lockheed Palo Alto
Research Laboratory and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
Collaborators include the University of Tokyo, Stanford University, the
University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Hawaii.
The SXT instrument that makes the observations in support of our scientific
objectives is a glancing incidence telescope of 1.54 m focal length which
forms X-ray images in the 0.25 to 4.0 keV range on a 1024x1024 virtual phase
CCD detector. A selection of thin metallic filters located near the focal
plane provides the capability to separate the different X-ray energies for
plasma temperature diagnostics. Knowledge of the location of X-ray images
with respect to features observable in visible light is provided by a
coaxially mounted visible-light telescope which forms its image on the CCD
detector when the thin metallic filter is replaced by an appropriate glass
filter.
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