Download or read book Giant Telescopes written by W. Patrick McCray and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2006-04-30 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every night, astronomers use a new generation of giant telescopes at observatories around the world to study phenomena at the forefront of science. By focusing on the history of the Gemini ObservatoryÑtwin 8-meter telescopes located on mountain peaks in Hawaii and ChileÑGiant Telescopes tells the story behind the planning and construction of modern scientific tools, offering a detailed view of the technological and political transformation of astronomy in the postwar era. Drawing on interviews with participants and archival documents, W. Patrick McCray describes the ambitions and machinations of prominent astronomers, engineers, funding patrons, and politicians in their effort to construct a modern facility for cutting-edge scienceÑand to establish a model for international cooperation in the coming era of Òmegascience.Ó His account details the technological, institutional, cultural, and financial challenges that scientists faced while planning and building a new generation of giant telescopes. Besides exploring how and why scientists embraced the promise and potential of new technologies, he considers how these new tools affected what it means to be an astronomer. McCrayÕs book should interest anyone who desires a deeper understanding of the science, technology, and politics behind finding our place in the universe.
Download or read book The Design and Construction of Large Optical Telescopes written by Pierre Bely and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-05-26 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is no dearth of books on telescope optics and, indeed, optics is clearly a keyelementinthedesignandconstructionoftelescopes.Butitisbynomeans the only important element. As telescopes become larger and more costly, other aspects such as structures, pointing, wavefront control, enclosures, and project management become just as critical. Although most of the technical knowledge required for all these ?elds is available in various specialized books, journal articles, and technical reports, they are not necessarily written with application to telescopes in mind. This bookisa?rstattemptatassemblinginasingletextthebasicastronomicaland engineering principles used in the design and construction of large telescopes. Itsaimistobroadlycoverallmajoraspectsofthe?eld,fromthefundamentals ofastronomicalobservationto optics, controlsystems,structural,mechanical, andthermalengineering,aswellasspecializedtopicssuchassiteselectionand program management. This subject is so vast that an in-depth treatment is obviously imprac- cal. Our intent is therefore only to provide a comprehensive introduction to the essential aspects of telescope design and construction. This book will not replace specialized scienti?c and technical texts. But we hope that it will be useful for astronomers, managers, and systems engineers who seek a basic understanding of the underlying principles of telescope making, and for s- cialists who wish to acquaint themselves with the fundamental requirements and approaches of their colleagues in other disciplines.
Download or read book Scientific Requirements for Extremely Large Telescopes IAU S232 written by International Astronomical Union. Symposium and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-06-15 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Proceedings volume for researchers and graduate students of astronomy, covering the most exciting science and key ELT projects.
Download or read book Large Telescopes written by Ray Villard and published by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. This book was released on 2001-12-15 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gives students an in-depth look at how large telescopes work. The wonder and awe of space and the scientific instruments we use to study it both come shining through in this fascinating book. Full-color diagrams and illustrations will help students visualize how the technology of telescopes works. Students will learn about the creation of mirrors 26.2 feet wide and telescope teams that work together to create a telescope as powerful as if it had a mirror the size of Earth!
Download or read book Future Giant Telescopes written by J. Roger P. Angel and published by SPIE-International Society for Optical Engineering. This book was released on 2003 with total page 656 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Observatories of the Southwest written by Douglas Isbell and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2016-12-15 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With its clear skies and low humidity, the southwestern United States is an astronomer’s paradise where observatories like Kitt Peak have redefined the art of skywatching. The region is unique in its loose federation of like-minded research outposts and in the quantity and diversity of its observatories—places captured in this unique guidebook. Douglas Isbell and Stephen Strom, both intimately involved in southwestern astronomy, have written a practical guide to the major observatories of the region for those eager to learn what modern telescopes are doing, to understand the role each of these often quirky places has played in advancing our understanding of the cosmos, and hopefully to visit and see the tools of the astronomer up close. For each observatory, the authors describe its history, highlights of its contributions to astronomy—with an emphasis on recent results—and information for visitors. Also included are wide-ranging interviews with astronomers closely associated with each site. Observatories covered range from McDonald in Texas to Palomar in California, with significant outposts in between: Arizona’s Kitt Peak National Observatory southwest of Tucson, the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, and the Whipple Observatory outside Amado; and New Mexico’s Very Large Array near Socorro and Sacramento Peak close to Sunspot. In addition to describing these established institutions, they also take a look ahead to the most powerful ground-based telescope in the world just beginning to operate at full power on Mount Graham in Safford, Arizona. With more than three dozen illustrations, Observatories of the Southwest is accessible to amateur astronomers, tourists, students, and teachers—anyone fascinated with the contributions that astronomy has made to deepening our understanding of humanity’s place in the universe, whether exploring the solar system from Lowell Observatory or studying the birth of stars using the army of giant radio telescopes at the Very Large Array. This book aims to inspire visits to these sites by illuminating the major scientific questions being pursued every clear night beneath the dark skies of the Southwest and the amazing machinery that makes these pursuits possible.
Download or read book Pauper Prince written by Donald E. Osterbrock and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists and historians today know of Ritchey only through the reports of Hale and Walter S. Adams, Hales's successor as director at Mount Wilson. We associate Ritchey with the Ritchey-Chretien system, used in almost all large reflecting telescopes today, with the 60-inch Mount Wilson telescope, and with the 100-inch Mount Wilson mirror, but we know little about his life and career. Yet today's large telescopes have demonstrated the validity of many of Ritchey's predictions, which seemed fantastic to most of the astronomers of his day.
Download or read book Observatories and Telescopes of Modern Times written by David Leverington and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Radio Observatory and Telescope Index -- General Index
Download or read book A Grand and Bold Thing written by Ann K. Finkbeiner and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-08-17 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: LATE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, what had been a fevered pace of discovery in astronomy for many years had slowed. The Hubble Space Telescope continued to produce an astonishing array of images, but the study of the universe was still fractured into domains: measuring the universe’s expansion rate, the evolution of galaxies in the early universe, the life and death of stars, the search for extrasolar planets, the quest to understand the nature of the elusive dark matter. So little was understood, still, about so many of the most fundamental questions, foremost among them: What was the overall structure of the universe? Why had stars formed into galaxies, and galaxies into massive clusters? What was needed, thought visionary astronomer Jim Gunn, recently awarded the National Medal of Science, was a massive survey of the sky, a kind of new map of the universe that would be so rich in detail and cover such a wide swath of space, be so grand and bold, that it would allow astronomers to see the big picture in a whole new way. So was born the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a remarkable undertaking bringing together hundreds of astronomers and launching a new era of supercharged astronomical discovery, an era of “e-science” that has taken astronomy from the lonely mountaintop observatory to the touch of your fingertips. Critically acclaimed science writer Ann Finkbeiner tells the inside story of the Sloan and how it is revolutionizing astronomy. The Sloan stitched together images of deep space taken over the course of five years, providing a remarkably detailed, three-dimensional map of a vast territory of the universe, all digitized and downloadable for easy searching on a personal computer, and available not only to professional astronomers but to the public as well. Bringing together for the first time images of many millions of galaxies—including the massive structure known as the Sloan Great Wall of galaxies, never seen before—the Sloan is allowing astronomers and armchair enthusiasts alike to watch the universe grow up, providing so many discoveries at such a fast pace that, as one astronomer said, it’s like drinking out of a fire hose. They are watching galaxies forming and galaxies merging with other galaxies, seeing streams of stars swirling out from galaxies, and forming a new understanding of how the smooth soup of matter that emerged from the Big Bang evolved into the universe as we know it. Ann Finkbeiner brings the excitement and the extraordinary potential of this new era of astronomy vividly to life and allows all readers to understand how they, too, can become part of the discovery process. A Grand and Bold Thing is vital reading for all.
Download or read book Diffraction limited Imaging with Large and Moderate Telescopes written by Swapan K. Saha and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2007 with total page 633 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the fundamentals of wave optics, polarization, interference, diffraction, imaging, and the origin, properties, and optical effects of turbulence in the Earth's atmosphere. Techniques developed during the last few decades to overcome atmospheric image degradation (including passive methods, speckle interferometry in particular, and active methods such as adaptive optics), are highlighted. Also discussed are high resolution sensors, image processing, and the astronomical results obtained with these techniques.
Download or read book Eyes on the Skies written by Govert Schilling and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-01-07 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adopted as the official book of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) 2009, this stunningly illustrated history of telescopic discovery spans the range from the first telescopes via the Hubble Space Telescope to next generation platforms, and how they have changed and continue to change our view of the universe, our place in it and where it all came from. EYES ON THE SKIES features numerous full-page photographs and is printed in high-quality color throughout. Also includes the official IYA DVD with 59 minutes of narrated text, expert comments and interviews, animations, computer simulations, science results, plus footage from observatories.
Download or read book Optimizing the U S Ground Based Optical and Infrared Astronomy System written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New astronomical facilities, such as the under-construction Large Synoptic Survey Telescope and planned 30-meter-class telescopes, and new instrumentation on existing optical and infrared (OIR) telescopes, hold the promise of groundbreaking research and discovery. How can we extract the best science from these and other astronomical facilities in an era of potentially flat federal budgets for both the facilities and the research grants? Optimizing the U.S. Ground-Based Optical and Infrared Astronomy System provides guidance for these new programs that align with the scientific priorities and the conclusions and recommendations of two National Research Council (NRC) decadal surveys, New Worlds, New Horizons for Astronomy and Astrophysics and Vision and Voyages for Planetary Sciences in the Decade 2013-2022, as well as other NRC reports. This report describes a vision for a U.S. OIR System that includes a telescope time exchange designed to enhance science return by broadening access to capabilities for a diverse community, an ongoing planning process to identify and construct next generation capabilities to realize decadal science priorities, and near-term critical coordination, planning, and instrumentation needed to usher in the era of LSST and giant telescopes.
Download or read book Extremely Large Telescopes written by and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Pith of Astronomy Without Mathematics written by Samuel Gamble Bayne and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The History of the Telescope written by Henry C. King and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This remarkable history encompasses not only the achievements of the early inventors and astronomers but also the less frequently recounted stories of the instrument makers and of the actual instruments. A model of unsurpassed, comprehensive scholarship, this volume covers many fields, including professional and amateur astronomy. 196 black-and-white illustrations.
Download or read book Telescopes written by Deborah Hitzeroth and published by Greenhaven Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 1991 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses early astronomical studies and the primitive tools used, the development of telescope technology, and the role telescopes have played in expanding our knowledge of the universe.
Download or read book Exoplanet Science Strategy written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2019-01-17 with total page 187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past decade has delivered remarkable discoveries in the study of exoplanets. Hand-in-hand with these advances, a theoretical understanding of the myriad of processes that dictate the formation and evolution of planets has matured, spurred on by the avalanche of unexpected discoveries. Appreciation of the factors that make a planet hospitable to life has grown in sophistication, as has understanding of the context for biosignatures, the remotely detectable aspects of a planet's atmosphere or surface that reveal the presence of life. Exoplanet Science Strategy highlights strategic priorities for large, coordinated efforts that will support the scientific goals of the broad exoplanet science community. This report outlines a strategic plan that will answer lingering questions through a combination of large, ambitious community-supported efforts and support for diverse, creative, community-driven investigator research.
