Physics 107

Descriptive Astronomy: Stars

and the Universe
Telescopes (Read Ch. 6)
The treatment in your textbook is excellent.

These notes supply additional comments and a few more diagrams.

NOTE: Please make sure you carefully read Chapter 6

 Optical Telescopes
Images can be formed through reflection or refraction.

Fig.1 A schematic of a
Cassegrain telescope

Cassegrain telescope by Szőcs Tamás Tamasflex. Under CC. SA. 3.0.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cassegrain.en.png
Light travels fastest in space (in a vacuum) and slower in matter. The
direction of light changes when it goes from one material to another in
which its speed is different.

Fig.2 Photo of light ray traveling through

glass: the direction of the light ray changes as
it passes through the glass

Refraction photo by Aajizai.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Refraction_photo.png
Refracting Lens
This property of light traveling through glass can be used to focus light
(by shaping the glass into a lens)

Fig.3 A schematic of light going

through a lens, focused after going
through the lens at the focal length

Lens power by Sjlegg.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lens_power.svg
Image Formation

Fig. 4. A schematic of the image of

a candle going through a lens. The
image is inverted after passing
through the lens

Convex lens - Object between focal point and centre of curvature. Adapted from
Kvr.lohith. Under CC. S.A. 4.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Convex_lens_-
_Object_between_focal_point_and_centre_of_curvature.png

Fig. 5. A photograph of an image

inverted by a lens

Convex lens (magnifying glass) and upside-down image, by AntanO. Under CC. S.A 4.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Convex_lens_(magnifying_glass)_and_upside-
down_image.jpg
Refracting Telescope

Fig.6. A lens, just like in

eyeglasses, bends light passing
through it. In eyeglasses, this
makes things less blurry. In a
telescope, it makes faraway things
seem closer.

Credit: Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/telescopes/en/
Reflecting Telescope

Fig.7. Unlike a lens, a mirror can be

very thin. A bigger mirror does not
also have to be thicker. Light is
concentrated by bouncing off of the
mirror. So the mirror just has to
have the right curved shape.

Credit: Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/telescopes/en/
• Modern telescopes are all reflectors:
• Light traveling through a lens is refracted differently depending on wavelength
(chromatic aberration).

Fig. 8. A schematic of chromatic

aberration. Light of different colors
is refracted differently because the
speed of light in glass depends on
the light’s color.

Chromatic aberration convex by Andreas 06.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chromatic_aberration_convex.svg

• Some light traveling through lens is absorbed (especially IR and UV light).

• A large lens can be very heavy, and can only be supported at edge.
• Lens needs two optically acceptable surfaces, whereas mirror only needs one.
Because large lenses, held at the edges, sag
from gravity, the largest telescopes are
reflectors
and have been for the last century. The
largest telescopes now (in the last two
decades) have segmented mirrors, each
segment computer-controlled.

Fig. 9. Mirror of a segmented telescope (the James Webb Space

Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2021). Notice the people at the
bottom of the photo for scale.
Mirror space telescopes. By Skeeze. Source: https://www.needpix.com/photo/851432/mirror-
space-telescope-hexagonal-mirrors-science-technicians-cosmos-research-observatory-
instrument
A larger telescope gathers more light and so can see dimmer objects.

Fig. 10. Picture comparing the size of

the mirrors for the Hubble Space
Telescope (launched in 1990) and the
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST;
scheduled for launch in 2021) mirrors.
Notice the person at the bottom left of
the photo for scale.

Webb vs Hubble primary mirror. By NASA. Under CC. BY SA. 2.0. https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/4813007838
• Because the stars and collections of stars (galaxies) that we look are
at immense distances, they are very faint. To see them, what is
crucial is to gather as much of their light as possible:

• First by having a mirror (or a lens) that is as large as possible, and

second by adding up all the light that comes to the telescope over a
time of minutes or hours.

• You add up the light by using a camera – used to use photographic

plates that were exposed for minutes or hours, nowadays use a digital
camera.
Digital cameras (like the one in your phone) were initially developed by
astronomers, using the light-sensitive silicon chips invented by William
Boyle and George Smith at Bell Labs in 1969. They shared the 2009
Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery.

Fig. 11. Photo of Boyle and

Smith at the 2009 Nobel Prize
press conference.

Nobel Prize 2009-Press Conference KVA-19. By Prolinrserver. Under CC. BY SA. 3.0.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nobel_Prize_2009-Press_Conference_KVA-19.jpg
Angular Resolution
The second major advantage of a large telescope is its ability to see a
separation between two objects that are nearly in the same direction.
In optical astronomy, one typically wants to see two distinct stars when
looking at a binary system in which the two stars orbit their common
center of mass. In radio astronomy, one wants to resolve the fine
details of the center of a distant galaxy. The resolving power is the
smallest angle one can see with a given telescope.
• Large telescopes have greater resolving power than small telescopes,
but the resolving power of all earthbound telescopes is limited by the
turbulence of the air.

• To avoid the problems with turbulence one places optical telescopes

on mountains higher than most of the atmosphere, or, more
expensively, on satellites.
The largest telescope

Fig. 12. The world’s largest

optical telescope is the
Gran Telescopio Canarias in
Spain, with a mirror 34 feet
across.

Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) @ La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. By Axel Taferner. Under CC. BY SA. 2.0.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ataferner/14796133680
 Fig. 13. Photo of the Hubble
Space Telescope as seen from
the Space Shuttle Atlantis

Hubble Space Telescope. By Ruffnax (Crew of STS-125). NASA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HST-

SM4.jpeg
Fig. 14. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field: an image
of a small region of space in the constellation
Fornax, made with Hubble Space Telescope
data accumulated over a period from
September 3, 2003 through January 16, 2004.
The patch of sky in which the galaxies reside
was chosen because it had a low density of
bright stars in the near-field. This is a picture of
the most distant (and young) galaxies in the
universe.

Hubble ultra deep field high rez. By NASA and the European Space Agency.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hubble_ultra_deep_field_high_rez_edit
1.jpg#filelinks
Radio Telescopes
Satellite dishes are examples of small radio telescopes, focusing radio waves to a radio or TV antenna.
• A telescope mirror or dish has to be curved about as accurately as the wavelength of the light it focuses. For
radio waves with wavelengths of centimeters or longer, the accuracy needed is much less than for optical
telescopes, because the wavelength of visible light is much shorter. That allows you to build much larger
radio telescopes. The largest single radio telescope called FAST (Five-hundred meter Aperture Spherical
Telescope) is in Pingtang County, Guizhou, southwest China.
• Arrays of radio telescopes electronically connected have much greater angular resolution than optical
telescopes. The VLA (Very Large Array) in New Mexico is an example, with 27 telescopes acting as one
telescope 17 miles across.
• The greatest angular resolution is achieved by electronically joining radio telescopes on opposite sides of the
earth. The electronic technique is called interferometry, and it gives resolving power comparable to that of
a telescope whose radio dish is the size of the earth. The distance between electronically connected
telescopes is called the baseline, and the apparatus is called a VLBI, or very long baseline interferometer.
Two of the most sensitive radio telescopes in the world, the Arecibo and Green
Bank radio telescopes, are being used for a project that involves OSU undergrads,
graduate students, postdocs, and faculty.

Fig. 15. Photo of the Arecibo radio Fig. 16. Photo of the Green Bank radio
telescope in Puerto Rico telescope in West Virginia
Arecibo Observatory Aerial View. By H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF. Under Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. By Penn State. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
CC BY SA. 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasablueshift/8288406364 https://www.flickr.com/photos/pennstatelive/16901238763
There are some advantages to radio astronomy:
• Can observe 24 hours a day.
• Clouds, rain, and snow don’t interfere
• Observations at an entirely different frequency; get totally different information.
Fig. 17. Photo is a composite of visible,
microwave (orange) and X-ray (blue) data of
the galaxy Centaurus A. It shows the jets and
radio-emitting lobes emanating from
Centaurus A's central supermassive black
hole.

A Black Hole's Jets. By NASA Goddard. https://images.nasa.gov/details-

GSFC_20171208_Archive_e001876.html
The VLA (Very Large Array) in Socorro, New Mexico, an array of radio
telescopes on tracks which can be separated by up to 17 miles.

Fig. 18. Photo of the Very

Large Array

U.S. Route 60 Large Array. By Mobilus In Mobili. CC BY SA. 2.0

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:U.S._Route_60_Large_Array_(24561221889).jpg

• Interferometry combines information from several widely spread radio telescopes as if it came from
a single dish.
• Resolution will be that of dish whose diameter = largest separation between dishes.
As you know from Chapter 5, the atmosphere is opaque to light of most
wavelengths, marked by tan shading in the picture below. For g-rays, X-rays, most
ultraviolet and most infrared light, we use satellite telescopes.

Fig. 19. Top panel of the figure shows

The atmospheric opacity versus the
wavelength of light. The atmosphere
is mostly opaque to light not in the
visible and radio range of wavelengths.
The bottom panel of the figure shows
the various telescopes we use: optical
and radio telescopes on earth and
telescopes on satellites for gamma-rays,
x-rays, ultraviolet light, and infrared light.

Atmospheric electromagnetic transmittance or opacity. By NASA.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Atmospheric_electromagnetic_transmittance_or_opacity.jpg
The Spitzer Infrared Space Telescope
Fig. 20. Pre-launch photo of
the Spitzer Space Telescope

Fig. 21. An
artist’s
impression of
Spitzer space telescope pre-launch. By NASA/KSC. Spitzer Telescope
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spitzer_spac
e_telescope_pre-launch.jpg
Spitzer space telescope. By NASA/JPL-Caltech.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spitzer_space_telescope.jpg
The Chandra X-ray Observatory

Fig. 22. Picture shows artist’s

impression of Chandra

Chandra artist illustration. By NASA/CXC/NGST. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chandra_artist_illustration.jpg

Fig. 23. Picture shows data from three of NASA’s observatories: Chandra (X-ray), Hubble (optical), and Spitzer
(infrared). The data are combined to make this image of Cassiopeia A, the remnant of a star that died in a
supernova blast. By combining data from different kinds of telescopes, scientists can paint a fuller picture of
our universe.

Cassiopeia A. By NASA. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/513/10-things-spitzer-space-telescope/

• Much can be learned from observing the same astronomical object at many wavelengths.

Fig. 24. Pictures of the Crab nebula as seen in

different wavelengths.

Fig. 25. Pictures of the

Milky Way as seen in
different wavelengths.

Crab Nebula. By CM Hubert Chen, et al., NASA.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:800crab.png
Multi-wavelength milkyway. By Shijualex. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Multi-
wavelength_milkyway_ml.png
In addition to telescopes for light, there are detectors that observe cosmic rays --
protons and electrons from the Sun and other stars, detectors to observe
neutrinos, and detectors of gravitational waves.
Fig. 26. Photo of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Fig. 27. Picture of the first ever detected
Observatory (LIGO) site in Livingston, LA. gravitational wave in 2015.

LIGO. By LIGO Laboratory. Under CC BY SA. 2.0 Gravitational wave signals. By LIGO Laboratory. Under CC BY SA. 3.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23925401@N06/24342686634 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_observation_of_gravitational_waves#/media/File:LIGO_measur
ement_of_gravitational_waves.svg