Hubble Space Telescope
Posted on 02/03/2009 8:52:50 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Hubble Space Telescope
But as the International Year of Astronomy dawns, the renowned telescope is preparing for its final chapter, starting with the scheduled May 12 launch of the space shuttle Atlantis for NASA's fifth and final service mission to the telescope.
The repairs will provide Hubble with a future as bright, though perhaps not nearly as long, as its past, said Julianne Dalcanton, a University of Washington associate professor of astronomy who for nearly a decade has used the telescope for a major part of her research.
(Excerpt) Read more at physorg.com ...
What a tool.
I believe the upgrade is going to increase its magnification by several orders of magnitude.
Is there anyone who can tell me what units are used to designate spiffiness?
I’m really looking forward to when the new large array ground based optical telescope network comes online. The adaptive optics will take our atmosphere out of the equation and I’ve read that it will make Hubbel obsolete.
Also being ground based makes it cheaper to maintain and repair.
Spiffness is similar to furlongs per fortnight, but I believe it includes and extra fudge factor.
One AU per parsec is the fudge factor.
You’re welcome.
The spiffification would only increase by a smidgen if the array were on the moon or Lagrange points.
Hubble will still be better for taking very long exposures. Consider that a ground-based telescope can only be used at night. Hubble can be used 24x7, and it’s steadier when pointed at a specific object. It’s not subject to vibrations or irregularities from the motors that move a ground-based telescope to keep it pointed correctly.
ROFL!
You cna increase the magnification all you want, but the resolution is fixed by the size of the mirror. Magnification without resolution just magnifies noise.
I wonder if they are going to hook up Hubble with the new telescope ot increase resolution?
Not sure how they'd do that since any physical coupling would have to be dimensionally stable to less thatn 1/4 wavelength of light. In any case Hubble costs way too much for what you get. Keck telescope gets better data for about 1% of the cost.
All research teles are video’d or run on data transfer. The diameter of the objective could be artificially increased by hooking the two together electronically. I’m not sure there would be any large increase in capabilities.
18 years? wow.
hope they can squeeze another few good years out of the Hubble.
Not sure that works for anything shorter than radio wavelengths. Optical is a number of orders of magnitude shorter than radio.
I think that you are right. I was thinking of radio telescopes when I wrote that.
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I will be watching this on the NASA Channel. I have been waiting in great anticipation for this event!
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