36
votes
Accepted
What will succeed the Arecibo Observatory?
There's no simple answer. In the immediate future, different radio telescopes around the world will pick up the slack in various ways; how that happens will depend on the needs of individual observers ...
- 36k
30
votes
Why can't observatories just stop capturing for a few seconds when Starlink satellites pass though their field of view?
Tl;dr, From personal experience, it’s not worth it. It’s a lot easier to throw away bad data than to try to calculate when stop. There’s not a lot of ambiguity as to whether it messes up the data.
As ...
- 3,404
24
votes
"Next Generation Arecibo Telescope (NGAT)... would combine a 314-metre-wide platform with a swarm of 9-metre dishes on top" What would that look like?
There are a few diagrams in the original white paper (Anish Roshi et al. 2021; see Fig. 11) and the revised NGAT-130 proposal (Anish Roshi et al. 2023; see Fig. 3), depicting the basic arrangement. ...
- 36k
23
votes
How can astronomers pinpoint the location of the source of a neutrino?
You correctly state that neutrinos do not interact too often. The physical parameter describing that is the effective cross-section. So what you observe in a detector is not the neutrino itself, but ...
- 5,526
21
votes
Accepted
Will the Vera C. Rubin Observatory (formerly the LSST) make a significant increase in the rate of astronomical event alerts?
Yes. The estimates are that LSST will produce about 10 million alerts per night (LSST Alert Distribution presentation) which will be at least a factor of 5x greater than the amount coming from ZTF ...
- 8,313
18
votes
What telescope is Polish astronomer Kazimierz Kordylewski holding in this April 1964 photo at the Jagiellonian University Observatory in Krakow?
I believe this is a 20 cm Grubb refractor with a focal length of 248 cm.
This page mentions some of the telescopes at the Jagiellonian Observatory in 1964:
In 1964, a jubilee 600 years of ...
- 16.4k
15
votes
Building a floating, ocean-going giant radio telescope?
I would be extremely concerned about the ability of such a telescope to make adequately precise measurements, given the motion of the water. The leading radio telescopes have their mirrors and ...
- 36k
14
votes
Accepted
Which telescope's model is being shown to Albert Einstein in this file footage? What event might this be?
I'm pretty certain it is the 200inch Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory. There is an image galley of the 200 inch telescope. According to Richard Preston's book First Light: The Search For The Edge ...
- 8,313
13
votes
What will succeed the Arecibo Observatory?
As you said, the loss of Arecibo will definitely put a dent in the field of radio astronomy. As for what will help take its place - there are a couple options.
Green Bank Observatory has been and ...
- 1,453
13
votes
What will succeed the Arecibo Observatory?
The big loss is to radar astronomy. Arecibo was one of only two radar telescopes in the world in regular use, and was by far the more powerful: a 300 meter antenna and megawatt transmitter, versus ...
- 3,103
12
votes
Observatories that allow public access
Amateur astronomers regularly broadcast their viewing sessions over the Internet on the LiveSkies network. Pluto is within the viewing capabilities of most of the equipment used to broadcast but it ...
- 915
12
votes
Accepted
How does the James Webb Space Telescope achieve a focal length of 131.4m?
The JWST has three mirrors(*), the main mirror (6.5m in diameter) A secondary mirror, held on three struts in front of the main mirror and a tertiary mirror that reflects the light into the various ...
- 116k
11
votes
Accepted
What is a quaternary mirror and why does the E-ELT need one?
You may know that a standard Newtonian telescope has two mirrors, they are called the primary and secondary mirror.
The E-ELT has five mirrors: The quaternary mirror is simply "mirror number four&...
- 1,291
10
votes
Observatories that allow public access
The Faulkes Telescope project offers educational access to 2-m telescopes in the Canary Islands and Hawaii.
Thanks to @PaulPrice for confirming my hazy recollection. I was observing at the Mt Stromlo ...
- 146k
9
votes
Why does this Lowell Observatory telescope have so many knobs? What do they all do?
I contacted Dr. Danielle Adams, Deputy Director for Marketing and Communications at the Lowell Observatory. She was kind enough to reply, and generously provided the following (lightly edited for ...
- 31.4k
9
votes
How can astronomers pinpoint the location of the source of a neutrino?
High energy muon neutrinos occasionally interact and produce a muon. Energy and momentum must be conserved in the process and the muon heads off in the same direction as the neutrino.
The relativistic ...
- 146k
8
votes
Accepted
Why do telescopes use hexagonal mirror pieces instead of pie slice shaped ones?
The ideal shape for the mirror is round. It's the easiest to make. It's the best-behaved while in use.
The hex tiles are already harder. The mirror is a revolution surface generated by a conic curve (...
- 18.1k
8
votes
When did "resilvering" large telescope mirrors actually refer to aluminization, and why was it necessary?
Amateur telescope and mirror maker here. Not sure if I qualify as a "citable source" but anyway, here it is:
All metals will eventually tarnish. It may take a long time, but it will happen. The ...
- 18.1k
8
votes
Accepted
Does JWST have the largest bandwidth of any telescope?
No, for your so-called “non-traditional” definition. The Large Area Telescope (note the name 😏) on board of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope alone has an energy range from 20 MeV to 300 GeV, a ...
7
votes
Accepted
Was the use of silver on 'optical' telescope mirrors more common in the past? Why?
Aluminium coating is a relatively recent process - it became available around the 1920s or 1930s. The Hale telescope arrived just in time to take advantage of this new technology. (It requires a ...
- 2,467
7
votes
Accepted
Which observatories help NASA find 5 new asteroids per day?
Given that the article seems to be referring to NASA's Near Earth Object Program, it appears that there are five subprograms scanning the skies:
Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) (four telescopes: 0.50 m, 0....
- 36k
7
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of "bright unresolved sources"
"Unresolved" here means a source of light that appears as a point, not as a disc or a cloud.
For example, the planets can all be resolved to discs by even quite moderate telescopes. Galaxies also can ...
- 116k
7
votes
Which telescope's model is being shown to Albert Einstein in this file footage? What event might this be?
The event was in 1937; the telescope began operating in 1948. If this Getty photo is the same scene from a different angle,
then those with Einstein in the lower frame are, from left to right,
Nobel ...
- 18.2k
7
votes
Latitude, longitude and altitude of Ckoirama Observatory; where can things like this be looked-up?
Near the pinned location, at 24.0893°S 69.9306°W,
Bing Maps shows a building like the one in the University of Antofagasta photos, with signs of recent construction.
It's probably a matter ...
- 18.2k
7
votes
Accepted
What two "little observatories" run by a university in Chile and "by Germans" are near the future site of the Extremely Large Observatory?
The E-ELT is being built at Cerro Armazones, about 20 km from Paranal where the ESO VLT is sited. Unsurprisingly, the observatory that is already there is known as the the Cerro Armazones Observatory.
...
- 146k
7
votes
Accepted
What programs do astronomers use to ensure their observatory control computer has accurate time?
There are two needs for accurate time in modern telescopes and instruments:
A source of UT1-UTC for telescope pointing,
An accurate source of UTC for timestamping of acquired data in cameras/...
- 8,313
6
votes
Accepted
After Oumuamua passage, has an "urgency" telescope time request procedure been set up?
For observing "predictable" transient events (e.g. Gamma Ray burst or gravitational wave events), observers apply (i.e. write a proposal for peer review) for "target of opportunity" (ToO)time in ...
- 146k
6
votes
Impact of Atmospheric Water vapour on Optical Observations
There is actualy very little water vapour absorption in the optical part of the spectrum (350 - 750 nm). If "optical" is extended (as it often is) to include that part of the spectrum where ...
- 146k
6
votes
Accepted
Observatories that allow public access
The Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton in California has for years allowed the general public to view through their telescopes as part of their "Summer Series." Unfortunately, this is canceled ...
- 176
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible