Modern Telescopes and Ancient Skies
23
Modern Telescopes and Ancient Skies New Views of the Universe An IU Lifelong Learning Class Tuesdays, May 10, 17, 24 III. 30-meters and beyond
description
Modern Telescopes and Ancient Skies. New Views of the Universe. III. 30-meters and beyond. An IU Lifelong Learning Class Tuesdays, May 10, 17, 24. in 6-8 meter telescopes. WIYN TECHNOLOGY. 8-10 Meter Telescopes Today. Keck Telescopes Gemini North and South ESO’s Very Large Telescope - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Modern Telescopes and Ancient Skies
Modern Telescopes and Ancient
SkiesNew Views of the Universe
An IU Lifelong Learning ClassTuesdays, May 10, 17, 24
III. 30-meters and beyond
in 6-8 meter telescopes
WIYN TECHNOLOGY
8-10 Meter Telescopes Today• Keck TelescopesGemini North and
South• ESO’s Very Large
Telescope• Subaru• Hobby-Eberly
Telescope and SALT
• MMT Observatory• Magellan• Large Binocular
Telescope
The Twin Keck Telescopeson Mauna Kea
• Two 10-meter telescopes• “segmented” mirrors
– 36 hexagonal segments• Keck I in 1993; Keck II in 1996
ESO’s VLTCerro Paranal, Chile
Four 8.2 meter telescopes– Antu (the Sun)– Kueyen (the Moon)– Melipel (the Southern Cross)– Yepun (Venus - as evening star)
Subaru on Mauna Kea
• Built by Japan• 8.2-meter mirror• supported on air• superb images
Hobby-Eberlyand SALT
• 9-meter effective aperture
• fixed altitude• in West Texas and
South Africa
6.5-meter Telescopes
Magellan TelescopesTwin 6.5-m in Chile
Borosilicate honeycomb mirrors
MMT Observatory 6.5-m Telescopealso borosilicate honeycomblocated in southern Arizona
Large Binocular Telescope
Twin 8.4-meter mirrors on a single mount in
southern Arizona
Adaptive Optics – Correcting distortions caused by the Earth’s Atmosphere
UH-88”, Courtesy W.Brandner, 0.65” seeing
4’40”
5”
>220 stars in 5”x5”
Gemini N/Hokupa’a-QUIRC (U of H/NSF)
The Power
ofAdaptive
Optics
Gemini Observatory & U. Hawaii
Pluto and Charon with Adaptive Optics on Gemini
•Images in the infrared•Each frame is 4 arcsec across•Pluto and Charon are separated by 0.9 arcsec
•FWHM of stars is 0.08 arcsec
From the
ESO VLT
An exoplanet orbits a brown
dwarf “star” at a distance of
about 55 AU(the star and planet are
about 200 light years away)
New Telescopes to Answer New Questions
20 and 30-meter telescopes 8-meter survey telescope James Webb Space Telescope Virtual Observatory
Adaptive Optics will be a key
component of 20 and 30 meter
telescopes
Lasers will produce artificial stars in the
sky to help focus starlight
8.4-meters Triple-fold optical design 3 billion pixel-camera 30,000 gigabytes each night
LSSTLarge-apertureSynoptic
SurveyTelescope
Survey the sky each weekReal-time data analysis3 billion sources + transients
Exploring the Dark Universe
with LSST
Beyond 30-meters
ESO’s Overwhelmingly Large Telescope
Connecting to Gemini
Visiting with Peter Michaud at the
Gemini North Control Room in
Hilo, Hawaii
Final Thoughts
