coronagraph

noun

co·​ro·​na·​graph kə-ˈrō-nə-ˌgraf 

variants or less commonly coronograph

plural coronagraphs also coronographs

: a telescope for observation of a star's corona

The American spacecraft was to carry the solar coronagraph, the only instrument on the mission capable of imaging the sun's polar regions …

—M. Mitchell Waldrop

Using an instrument called a coronagraph, the astronomers can block a star's light, to catch the dim glow of dark matter that may surround it.

—Jonathan Weiner

Examples of coronagraph in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In the days before the comet became visible above the horizon, it was lost in the sun's glare but not to LASCO, which imaged it very close to the sun using its coronagraph disk to occult the sun's disk. —Jamie Carter, Forbes, 16 Oct. 2024

The first thing is a bit of hardware called a coronagraph attached to your telescope. —John Timmer, Ars Technica, 24 July 2024

Telescopes on Earth and satellites can use a coronagraph, an instrument that blocks the sun’s disk while leaving much of its atmosphere visible. —Aaron Shattuck, Scientific American, 25 June 2024

But coronagraphs can block important parts of the solar atmosphere near the surface. —Aaron Shattuck, Scientific American, 25 June 2024

Word History

Etymology

corona + -graph

First Known Use

1884, in the meaning defined above