The Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope (SST) is the largest solar telescope in Europe and number one in the world when it comes to high spatial resolution. In its superb location at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory it combines high optical quality, adaptive optics, and advanced image restoration techniques to allow the study of solar structures in unprecedented detail. It has reached the 'dream limit' of solar telescopes by reaching a resolution of 0.1 arc seconds in blue light - this corresponds to 70 km on the solar surface. The SST is owned and operated by the Institute for Solar Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The scientific instrumentation is placed on optical tables in a laboratory environment and can thus easily be changed. Each observer can build an optical setup optimized for their own specific investigation. There is one 'imaging table' where digital cameras take images in narrowly defined wavelengths (colors), each showing different kinds of phenomena at different heights in the solar atmosphere. The light beam can be diverted to another room, where it reaches a spectrograph, used for acquiring spectra which can be used for measuring physical properties, such as the velocity, of the solar gas. Solar magnetic fields can be measured with the help of the polarization of light. These are difficult measurements requiring precision instruments and a very sharp and steady solar image.