Telescopes

Doc Harris

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Figure 5.3A

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Figure 5.3B

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Figure 5.4

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Figure 5.5A

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Figure 5.6

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Reflectors vs. Refractors
• Large scientific telescopes are virtually always reflector telescopes.
Why?
• Lenses create Chromatic Aberration

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Chromatic Aberration (Jupiter)

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Reflectors vs. Refractors
• Large scientific telescopes are virtually always reflector telescopes.
Other reasons:

• Glass can absorb some wavelengths of light while light passes through
lens
• Lenses are actually pretty heavy.
• Both sides of lenses have to be polished to high precision

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Figure 5.7

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Figure 5.10A

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 Figure 5.11

European Southern
Observatory,
Chile’s Atacama Desert

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 Figure 5.12

Extremely Large
Telescope (39.3 m)

Telescopes up to 100 m
diameter!

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Very Large Array, New Mexico

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James Webb Space Telescope
Launched in:
2007 ($500 million)
2009
2010
2011
2013
2014
2016
2018
2019
2020
2021 ($10.5 billion) 21
Seeing and Diffraction Limits

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Seeing
• How much stuff get smeared by the atmosphere:
• Telescopes take one image in many minutes
• You need that much time to collect enough light to
see anything
• Imagine adding up a bunch of turbulent images
like this
• Ends up just being a smear!

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Seeing
• Measured in “arcseconds”
• 360 degrees = 1 circle
• 60 arcminutes = 1 degree
• 60 arcseconds = 1 arcminute
• One arcsecond is 1 part in 1,296,000 of a circle
• Really good seeing = 0.3 arcseconds (only found at Mauna Kea)
• Really bad seeing = 3 arcseconds (here on a clear night)

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Figure 5.14

“Seeing”:
How “crisp” or “focused” a
space image is.

Caused by turbulence in
the atmosphere

Same as “twinkling”!

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Figure 5.14

Match each image on the right to a

possible location at which it was
observed

1. Sea-level in a humid
environment
2. Empty (outer) space
3. Sea-level in an arid/desert
environment
4. On top of a high, dry mountain
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Angular Diameters!
• θ = s/r
• θ = angular diameter in radians
• s = physical size in meters/km/miles/whatever
• r = physical distance in meters/km/miles/whatever

• The moon is 31 arcminutes across

• Jupiter has an angular diameter of 48 arcseconds at its closest

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Finding Jupiter’s Angular Diameter
• θ = s/r
• Jupiter’s diameter = 140,000 km
• Jupiter’s closest approach = 6x108 km
• 1 radian = 3,438 arcminutes
• 1 radian = 206,265 arcseconds

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Finding Jupiter’s Angular Diameter
• θ = s/r
• Jupiter’s diameter = 140,000 km
• Jupiter’s closest approach = 6x108 km
• 1 radian = 3,438 arcminutes
• 1 radian = 206,265 arcseconds

• θ = 0.000233 rad = 0.8 arcminutes = 48 arcseconds

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Finding Alpha Centauri A’s Angular Diameter
• θ = s/r
• ACenA’s diameter = 1.7x106 km
• ACenA’s Distance = 4.37 LY = 4.13x1013 km
• 1 radian = 3,438 arcminutes
• 1 radian = 206,265 arcseconds

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Finding Alpha Centauri A’s Angular Diameter
• θ = s/r
• ACenA’s diameter = 1.7x106 km
• ACenA’s Distance = 4.37 LY = 4.13x1013 km
• 1 radian = 3,438 arcminutes
• 1 radian = 206,265 arcseconds

• ANS: 4.1x10-8 radians or 0.0085 arcseconds

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Can we resolve Alpha Centauri A?
• With our most powerful telescopes on Earth, can we “resolve” Alpha
Centauri A? Meaning, can we see it as a disk instead of a point?

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Can we resolve Alpha Centauri A?
• With our most powerful telescopes on Earth, can we “resolve” Alpha
Centauri A? Meaning, can we see it as a disk instead of a point?

• No! Not with our eyes (1 arcminute resolution)

• Not with our best ground-based telescopes! (0.3 arcsecond resolution)

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Diffraction Limited Telescopes
• Put a telescope in space. Seeing is ZERO, right? Resolve everything!
• Now we have a problem with quantum mechanics.
• Thanks to QM, we can’t get perfect seeing even in space.
• Light is a wave, so it obeys wave mechanics, which smears even photons!

• θ = minimum resolvable angle (in RADIANS)

• λ = wavelength of light you are using
• D = diameter of telescope (larger is better!)

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Hubble vs JWST Diffraction Limit

• Hubble has a mirror diameter of 2.4 meters

• JWST has 6.5 m diameter
• Hubble uses visible light, λ = 5x10-7 m
• JWST uses IR light: 5x10-6 m
• What are their respective diffraction limits?

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Hubble vs JWST Diffraction Limit
• Hubble: 2.54 x 10-7 radians or 0.052 arcseconds
• JWST: 9.38 x 10-7 radians or 0.19 arcseconds
• JWST is not “higher resolution”, it looks in a different part of the spectrum!
• NOTE! JWST uses 0.6-28.3 um light, so in some parts of the spectrum it is
actually better resolution.

• Given ACenA is 0.0085 arcseconds… we still cannot resolve it!

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Seeing Continents??
• How large of a space telescope do you need to see a continent (1000
km across) at 20 light years distance?
• 1 Light Year = 9.46x1012 km
• Visible light (blue) = 4x10-7 m

• θ = s/r

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Seeing Continents??
• How large of a space telescope do you need to see a continent (1000
km across) at 20 light years distance?
• 1 Light Year = 9.46x1012 km
• Visible light (blue) = 4x10-7 m

• θ = s/r = 1000/(20*9.46x1012) = 5.29x10-12 radians

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Seeing Continents??
• How large of a space telescope do you need to see a continent (1000
km across) at 20 light years distance?
• 1 Light Year = 9.46x1012 km
• Visible light (blue) = 4x10-7 m
• =
• θ = s/r = 1000/(20*9.46x1012) = 5.29x10-12 radians
• 5.29x10-12 radians =
• D = 92,300 meters!

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Lunar crater telescope?

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Diffraction Spikes!
https://
webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/01G529MX46J7AFK61GAMSHKSSN

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BONUS!
Alien Ship

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