29:52 Announcements

• Homework #4 – posted online & due Monday (9-29)

Ch. 5: 1, 6, 11, 21, 22
Ch. 6: 4, 14, 18 + two online questions

• Handouts on Spacecraft Flight/Propulsion

- Posted on the website this afternoon
- One required (trajectories); other optional

• PRS devices:
- not listed as having checked out PRS unit:
Noah Baker Pete Nelson
Greg Gruwell Folke Simons
Jerryn Johnston
Steve Krapl
26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 1
Observing
- characteristics of ground-based telescopes
- refracting vs. reflecting optical telescopes
- collecting area
- resolution or ‘sharpness’
- space-based observatories

Radio Telescope Solar System - Dr. C.C. LangOptical Telescope

26 Sept 2003 2
 Refracting Telescope

Reflecting Telescope

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 3

 A refracting telescope uses a lens to
concentrate incoming light at a focus.

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 4

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 5
 A lens creates
an extended
image of an
extended
object.

lenses reverse
images
26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 6
OPTICAL TELESCOPES REFRACTORS
 use lenses to BEND and FOCUS light

• earliest telescopes
were refracting

• bigger lens, collect

more light, but then
you need a LONGER
focal length!

• eventually got impractical

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 7
• famous refracting
telescope

• tube is 64 feet
long!

• lens diameter =
40 inches or
~1m

26 Sept 2003
Yerkes Observatory near Chicago
Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 8
 A reflecting
telescope
uses a
mirror to
concentrate
incoming
light at a
focus.

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 9

 OPTICAL/RADIO TELESCOPES REFLECTORS

The light/radio wave is collected the primary mirror,

then sent to secondary mirror at the focal point

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 10

The secondary
mirror in the tube
does not cause a
hole in the image.

It does however make

it ever so slightly
dimmer because it
reduces the total
amount of light
reaching the primary
mirror.

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 11

Keck
Telescope
note
10 m size of
mirror-- person!
made of
36 smaller
parts

computer
controlled!

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 12

 ALL TELESCOPES some considerations
1. SIZE
- larger collecting areas allow you to collect more
EM radiation (area=r2)
- not to be confused with magnification

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 13

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 14
ALL TELESCOPES some considerations

2. SHARPNESS/DETAIL – also known as “resolution”

depends on wavelength & diameter of telescope
 resolution ~ /D

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 15

 Examples of how resolution depends on
wavelength and telescope diameter

Radio dish D = 64 meters Optical telescope D = 10 meters

Wavelength = 20 cm = 0.02 m Wavelength = 500 nm = 5 x 10-7 m

Resolution ~ /D = 800” or 0.2 deg Resolution = /D = 0.”01 =

(equation = 2.5 x 105 /D) 3 x 10-6 deg!
26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 16
 Example of Bad & Good Resolution

Telescope images are degraded by the blurring

effects of the atmosphere and by light pollution

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 17

 University of Iowa’s
Rigel Telescope in Arizona

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 Iowa Robotic Telescope

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 Hubble Space Telescope: “beat the atmosphere”

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 Hubble Space Telescope

• optical telescope

• 2.4-m mirror

• in “low-earth” orbit:
368 miles above Earth

• orbits every 90 minutes

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26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 22
 X-rays: Chandra X-ray Observatory

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 X-rays will pass through normal mirrors
to focus X-rays, use “grazing incidence”

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 24

 SIRTF: Space InfraRed Telescope Facility
(in earth orbit: an “infrared Hubble”)
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SOFIA: Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
telescope implanted in a 747 aircraft, flies at 40,000 feet

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 26

 PRS Quiz for Homework #4
1. List the emission of red, green, and blue light in order of increasing
wavelength
1. Blue, green, red
2. Red, green, blue
3. Blue, red, green
4. Green, red, blue

2. List the emission of red, green, and blue light in order of increasing energy
1. Blue, green, red
2. Red, green, blue
3. Blue, red, green
4. Green, red, blue

3. X-rays travel at what speed? (c is the speed of light)

1. Faster than c
2. Slower than c
3. At exactly c
4. Depends on the energy of the x-ray
26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 27
4. Jupiter has a surface temperature of 120K and a blackbody spectrum which
peaks at a wavelength of 30 microns. Pluto’s blackbody spectrum peaks
at 60 microns. What is its surface temperature?
1. 30K
2. 60K
3. 120K
4. 240K

5. The Doppler effect is a change of wavelength caused by

1. Gravitational fields between emitter and observer
2. Dilute hot gases in the path of the light
3. Magnetic fields near the emitter
4. Relative motion of the source or observer

6. Which type(s) of telescope must be operated in outer space?

1. Radio telescope
2. X-ray telescope
3. Optical telescope
4. Microwave telescope

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 28

 7. The main optical element in a refracting telescope is a
1. mirror
2. lens
3. Combination of many small plane mirrors
4. Prism of glass

8. In telescopes, the resolution is worse for

1. larger diameter lenses/mirrors and shorter wavelengths
2. smaller diameter lenses/mirrors and longer wavelengths
3. smaller diameter lenses/mirrors and shorter wavelengths
4. larger diameter lenses/mirrors and longer wavelengths

9. Telescopes are placed in space to view distant galaxies primarily to

1. Get closer to the observed objects
2. Avoid having to steer the telescope against Earth’s motion
3. Avoid the absorption of EM radiation by the Earth’s atmosphere
4. Avoid the light pollution
26 Sept 2003
from Earth’s populated areas
Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 29
10. The large radio telescope located near North Liberty, Iowa is part of
1. The Very Large Array (VLA)
2. The Arecibo consortium (Arecibo Array)
3. The NASA tracking network
4. The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)

26 Sept 2003 Solar System - Dr. C.C. Lang 30