SUNSPOT, N.M. — You always hear that you shouldn’t look directly at the sun but astronomers at the only solar observatory in New Mexico are paid to do that.

For the last 55 years, astronomers at the Sunspot Solar Observatory have been observing the sun and its solar activity. Completed in 1969 and home to the Dunn Solar Telescope, the observatory is 136 feet tall and over 200 feet deep.

“It was designed to overcome all the obstacles you encounter when you observe Earth’s atmosphere and light traveling to us through our atmosphere gets distorted,” said Heidi Sanchez, the education and public outreach coordinator at the observatory.

Although astronomers use it to observe the sun, you can’t exactly look through the telescope.

“The telescope doesn’t have an eyepiece, so they don’t even get to look directly at the sun. Everything’s fed through on monitors,” Sanchez said.

Dr. Sean Sellers is an astronomer who actively works with the telescope. He says they only look at a small portion of the sun at a time.

“It studies a very small region of the sun’s surface in incredibly high detail. It gets us information about the sun’s surface, its atmosphere, the dynamics of the plasma occurring around those areas, as well as information about magnetic fields and plasma flows,” Sellers said.

Because they only look at a small section, the observatory isn’t the ideal spot to watch the solar eclipse. However, they still encourage people to watch it because it’s an experience you won’t get for another 20 years.

The Sunspot Solar Observatory is open to the public during certain hours. If you’d like to learn more, click here.