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1 Slides Observing PDF
1 Slides Observing PDF
Keck2 1995
MMT
HET 2000
Gemini (x2)
VLT (x4) Spitzer 2005
Magellan
SALT 2010
LBT (x2)
GTC JWST 2015
LSST
2020
GMT
CELT
E-ELT
Ground-based Space-based
Planned 21st century 20-60 meter telescopes will cost about $1 billion,
not out of line with the most ambitious 19th and 20th century projects.
• Plot of largest optical/infrared
telescope size vs. time reveals
an exponential growth rate.
– Remarkable given all the
various social, economic,
and technical factors.
• Extrapolating from Keck 10 m:
• 10 m
1. Light Pollution
Major Observatory Sites
2.0 H A LE
S UB 100 M$
DS N
1.8
VL
K E CK
B ON N
scales according to area
(C OL)
1.6
MMT-2
T GE M
ENDOSTRUCTURE
or D2 while the building
(MA G)
1.4 MMT-1
TELESCO PES scales as volume or D3.
S
N TT
RE
1.2 HE T SMT
TU
1.0
Other complex issues
DIO
UC
TR
0.8
RA
0.6
EX
top view
side view
(section)
UV cameras mounted in
the furnace lid monitor the
casting.
First GMT segment. The others are off-axis parabaloids (challenging!)
The stress-lap polishing of the surface is accurate to one millionth of an inch.
The mirror forms images so sharp you could read a newspaper from 5 miles.
Mirror being installed in
support cell at the telescope
View of convex rear surface of the first LBT secondary shell, showing
aluminum coating for capacitive sensors and magnets for actuators.
Figuring of the Optical Surface
Completion due
in 2016, with 66
antennas of 12m
and 7m diameter
at an altitude of
5000m in Chile’s
Atacama Desert.
Optical Interferometer
Detectors
In the late 1970’s Charge-Coupled Detectors (CCDs) began
to be used in astronomy, taking over from photographic
plates and image tubes. By the 1990’s, all major research
telescopes in the world were using nitrogen-cooled CCDs.
How a CCD Works
Literature
Simulations
facts
? answers
Special purpose
missions such as
WMAP cost less
(about $300m),
which is 5 to 6x
less than a Great
Observatory and
can also answer
major scientific
questions.
Spitzer
Herschel
Chandra and XMM
SIM,
SOFIA TPF?
Galileo Updated
1010
Photographic & electronic detection
Sensitivity
Electronic
Improvement Telescopes alone
108
over the Eye
Photography
104
On the Earth:
102
Slow f ratios
Rosse’s 72”
Soviet 6-m
13 of 8 meters
eyepiece
Huygens
Galileo
or over since
the mid 90s
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000
Year of Observation
Hubble Space Telescope
HST Overview
• An orbiting telescope that collects light
from celestial objects at visible, UV, and
near-infrared wavelengths
• Launched 24 April, 1990, aboard the
Space Shuttle Discovery
• Dimensions: Cylindrical 24,500 lb
(11,110-kg), 43 ft long (13.1 m ) and 14.1
ft (4.3m) wide
• Orbital period: 96 minutes
• Primarily powered by the sunlight
collected by its two solar arrays
• The telescope’s primary mirror is 2.4 m
(8 ft) in diameter
• Was created by NASA with substantial
"The Hubble Space Telescope is the most and continuing participation by ESA
productive telescope since Galileo's" • Operated by the Space Telescope Science
Institute (STSI) in Baltimore
- Robert Kirshner, President of the
American Astronomical Society • Named for Edwin Powell Hubble
“Top 10 excuses for the HST”
Mplanet
Astronomical Telescope: Astronomical Price Tag
• Original budget: $475 million
• OTA: $69.4 million
• Actual cost: In 1986, when it
was first assembled for launch,
it cost $1.6 billion, and had
several technical problems.
Four years of tinkering and
improvements later, it finally
launched – at $2.2 billion (not
counting $0.5 billion launch!)
• Percentage overrun: 460%
• Mirror had spherical aberration
– only seeing ~20% of the light.
• SM-1: repaired faulty optics,
next 4 rejuvenated the facility.
• Price, after 21 years: $6 billion.
Hubble Images
Making Color Images
The final color image on the left is the result of extensive processing.
There are four individual images (the top right quadrant at a higher
resolution) and separate images taken through different color filters.
Each color filter has two equal exposures taken (left and right); the
streaks are cosmic ray hits in the CCD silicon. They arrive randomly
and can be removed very efficiently by combining the two images.
The left image is the result of cosmic ray filtering. An even better
result (right) comes from using images in the four different filters.
Next geometric distortions in the camera are mapped and removed
(left), and the seams between the different images are eradicated.
Blue is assigned to the oxygen filter image, green to the hydrogen
filter image, and red to the sulfur filter image. They are combined.
225W
Mirrors:
• Material: Fused Silica
• 25 cm diameter
5W • 10 cm thick
• Wedged (~2deg)
Beam Pipe and Enclosure
Fused Silica
Single suspension 0.31mm music wire
Periodic Sources
» Rotating pulsars
“Burst” Sources
» Supernovae
» Gamma ray bursters
» ?????
BANG!
Stochastic
» Big Bang Background
» Cosmic Strings
LIGO is a laser
interferometer
that can detect
motions below
the size of one
proton over a
span of 5km;
it’s by far the
most accurate
experiment in
physics ever, a
precision of:
10-22
LIGO and LISA
Frontiers
Big Bang + 700,000,000 years
First Light and Beyond