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CONTENT - A overview of what powerful tools professional astronomers have at their disposal
 

Professional astronomers, today, are operating either from the ground -through the various wavelengths available there- or from space, using dedicated space telescopes

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Ground Telescopes
Ground Radio Telescopes
Space Telescopes

arrow back Ground Telescopes

the Keck I and II telescopes at the summit of the Mauna Kea, Hawaithe Keck I and II telescopes at the summit of the Mauna Kea, Hawai

Refractors, after they had been improved by Chester Hall, a Englishman who deviced by 1733 a refractor which solved the question of the achromatism, a default plaguing any telecope glass lens, affixing a concave lens to a convex one, a limit was reached however as large lenses' weight brought to troubles. The Yerkes refractor, in the USA, at 1.02 meter by 1897 was the last large refractor. The Mount Wilson reflector, by 1917, at 2.5 meter of aperture, in the USA, heralded the era of large ground reflectors. Most of the ground telescopes the professional astronomers are using today are of the reflecting type and of the Ritchey-Chrétien type. The instruments, on the other hand, are remotely operated. No more nights in the dark and the cold in the prime focus cage of the giant reflectors, as the astronomers now work in a comfortable command room which is located just near their instrument. Astronomers nowadays can do almost all of their research on their laptops as they command the telescopes from computer screens. Some telescopes can also be operated remotely from laptops. Astronomers, on the other hand, mostly do not observe celestial objects with the eye but through varied sensors instead, optical or other

->A New, Spanish 10-Meter Telescope!
The 'Gran Telescopio de Canarias' or 'GTC', with a diameter of 10,4 ( ft) and with its mirror made of 36 hexagonal segments, opened lately in the island of La Palma in Canarias, a possession of Spain. The telescope is managed by Grantecan, a Spanish public agency as its official inauguration is to take place by next July 2009

->Next Generation Ground Telescopes
Astronomers, worldwide, are aiming to build the next generation ground telescopes, in the order of the 100 ft (30 meters) of diameter, which will allow to push further to the beginnings of the Universe, by about 13 billion years. An example of that is the joined project by the University of California, the Caltech and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Hawaii where the Mauna Kea summit has been chosen in 2009 instead of the Cerro Amazones for the 'Thirty Meters Telescope' (TMT), Chile like the site for their telescope. Europe, or Russia, too have such projects with the European ESO 39.3-meter, advanced active and adpatative optics European Extremely Large Telescope, or E-ELT to be operational by 2024 from atop Cerro Amazones, in the Atacama Desert, Chileas the first stone of which was been laid down by May 2017

arrow back Ground Radio Telescopes

antennas of the VLA, Socorro, New Mexicoantennas of the VLA, Socorro, New Mexico. picture NRAO

Radio astronomy is the branch of astronomy which works in the radio range as it studies the radio waves emanating from the celestial objects, from the black holes at the center of the galaxies to the Sun or the interstellar gas clouds. Radio astronomy started in the 1930s only. Scientists first detected radio waves coming from an astronomical object -- our Milky Way -- in 1932. Following this discovery, radio astronomy developed into its own specialized science field and astronomers around the world beginnning to look into space for something other than visible light, with something other than just optical telescopes. Radio astronomy is working in the wavelengths of about 10 meters (30 MHz) and 1 millimeter (300 GHz). Radio astronomy was born at frequencies below 100 megahertz and developed from there. It helped pave the way for modern astronomy as one of the most important contributions in radio astronomy was by a young graduate student at New Hall (since renamed Murray Edwards College) of the University of Cambridge, U.K. Jocelyn Bell, who discovered the first hints of radio pulsars in 1967. Radio-telescopes, just like their optical counterparts, may work on the principle of interferometry, combining their strength to yield high-resolution virtual receivers. Such radio facilities, on the other hand, may be networked, worlwide, producing higher resolution still

arrow back Space Telescopes

the Hubble Space Telescope as seen in orbitthe Hubble Space Telescope as seen in orbit. picture NASA

NASA currently has three major space telescopes, or NASA 'Great Observatories,' orbiting in space: the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Those space telescopes allow for the observation of the Universe at various wavelengths. Another NASA space observatory was the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which was working in the gamma rays. It has already been de-orbited. In anticipation of the Hubble launch, NASA set up the Great Observatories program to fly a total of four space telescopes designed to cover a range of wavelengths: Hubble, Spitzer, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. All NASA space telescope were the most productive science facilities ever built as all were all top recommendations of a U.S. National Academy of Sciences' 'Decadal Survey for Astronomy and Astrophysics.' NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center played a significant role in NASA’s Great Observatories, especially in managing the development of the Hubble Space Telescope and in managing the development, flight and current operations of Chandra

->The JWSP, the Successor to Hubble!
Scheduled to launch now in 2018, the 'James Webb Space Telescope' (JWSP) is the next generation space telescope which will allow astronomers to get further towards the Dark Ages of the Universe. It will be observing in the far visible to the mid-infrared part of the spectrum with a mirror twice the one of Hubble and made of the combination of 18 mirrors. Northrop Grumman Space Technology is the prime contractor to develop the JWST as Goddard Space Flight Center is managing the project and the Space Telescope Science Institute will be responsible for the telescope science and mission operations -as it is too now for the Hubble. ESA and the Canadian Space Agency too are part of the project. By June 2012, two former spy satellite telescopes were given to NASA by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the U.S. spy satellite agency and should be repurposed by NASA for astronomical research. Main mirror of both telescopesis at 8 feet wide as they could be part in a next future of the solutions of replacement for the aging Hubble Space Telescope

Some shorter-lived space missions regularly launch to the terrestrial orbit for dedicated missions, like the Galex mission which is studying the galaxies in the ultraviolet, or the Swift craft which is dedicated to the gamma-rays bursts. Such missions are launched by NASA or by other space agencies. for more about such missions, see our page "Missions"

Website Manager: G. Guichard, site 'Amateur Astronomy,' http://stars5.6te.net. Page Editor: G. Guichard. last edited: 9/25/2018. contact us at ggwebsites@outlook.com
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