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Russian 6-m Nasmyth focus platforms Problems: 17-ton mirror has thermal time constant of a few days; location based on politics. Note alt-az mount.

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Presentation on theme: "Russian 6-m Nasmyth focus platforms Problems: 17-ton mirror has thermal time constant of a few days; location based on politics. Note alt-az mount."— Presentation transcript:

1 Russian 6-m Nasmyth focus platforms Problems: 17-ton mirror has thermal time constant of a few days; location based on politics. Note alt-az mount

2 Enormous telescopes of the Future TMT = Ten Meter Telescope (US) OWL = Overwhelmingly Large telescope, 100m

3 The rest of the spectrum Space-based observatories needed Radio requires special telescopes

4 IRAS = InfraRed Astronomical Satellite – early NASA

5 IUE = International Ultraviolet Explorer—another…

6 Russian 6-m Nasmyth focus platforms Problems: 17-ton mirror has thermal time constant of a few days; location based on politics. Note alt-az mount

7 NASA’s Great Observatories

8 HST = Hubble Space Telescope

9 Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO) Mission now over

10 Chandra X-Ray Satellite

11 SIRTF = Space Infra-Red Telescope Facility launched a year ago Renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope

12 James Webb Next Generation Space Telescope > 20-ft diameter Named after 2 nd NASA administrator; built by TRW L 2 Lagrange point for Earth-Sun system (thus 10 6 times closer to us than sun – mass ratio…), or 940,000 miles from us. (Sun-stationary)

13 Karl Jansky’s Rotating Antenna (Bell Labs, 1931) Saw a sidereal period (~23 h 56 m ) signal

14 Typical Radio Astronomy Telescope Why so large? ….

15 Resolution of telescopes Angular resolution depends on telescope diameter (D) and signal wavelength (λ): Rayleigh criterion: Θ min ~ λ / D

16 Some numbers … For optical wavelengths, Θ in arc-seconds, and D in inches it works out to Θ min ~ 4.5 / D Example: for your 8-inch telescopes, Θ min ~ 4.5 / 8 = 0.56 arc-sec (note signs…)

17 Schematic Today: a computer

18 Green Bank, WV

19 aricebo

20 Interferometry

21 VLA = Very Large Array (NM)

22 VLBA = Very Long Baseline Array

23 PARI = Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute


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