Transcript Modern Telescopes and Ancient Skies

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
WIYN TECHNOLOGY
in 6-8 meter telescopes
8-10 Meter
Telescopes Today
• Keck Telescopes
Gemini North and
South
• ESO’s Very Large
Telescope
• Subaru
• Hobby-Eberly
Telescope and SALT
• MMT Observatory
• Magellan
• Large Binocular
Telescope
The Twin Keck
Telescopes
on Mauna Kea
• Two 10-meter telescopes
• “segmented” mirrors
– 36 hexagonal segments
• Keck I in 1993; Keck II in 1996
ESO’s VLT
Cerro Paranal, Chile
Four 8.2 meter telescopes
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Antu (the Sun)
Kueyen (the Moon)
Melipel (the Southern Cross)
Yepun (Venus - as evening star)
Subaru on
Mauna Kea
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Built by Japan
8.2-meter mirror
supported on air
superb images
Hobby-Eberly
and SALT
• 9-meter effective
aperture
• fixed altitude
• in West Texas and
South Africa
Magellan Telescopes
Twin 6.5-m in Chile
Borosilicate
honeycomb mirrors
6.5-meter
Telescopes
MMT Observatory 6.5-m Telescope
also borosilicate honeycomb
located 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
How does it work???
The
Power
of
Adaptive
Optics
40”
4’
5”
>220 stars in 5”x5”
UH-88”, Courtesy W.Brandner, 0.65” seeing
Gemini N/Hokupa’a-QUIRC (U of H/NSF)
Pluto and Charon with Adaptive
Optics on Gemini
Gemini Observatory & U. Hawaii
• 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
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
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
Large-aperture LSST
Synoptic
Survey
Telescope
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8.4-meters
Triple-fold optical design
3 billion pixel-camera
30,000 gigabytes each night
Survey the sky each week
Real-time data analysis
3 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
Kirkwood
Observatory
Viewing
Night Sky
Viewing
Final Thoughts