Seven Wonders of Astronomy
Published on Jul 22, 2007 at 8:13 pm.
5 Comments.
Filed under astronomy, blogging, wonders.
A couple weeks ago, I posted about the New Seven Wonders of the World, and I offered my suggestions for Seven Wonders of Space Exploration. That series seemed well received, so but a couple of comments led me to think that I should probably have a follow-up series on the Seven Wonders of Astronomy. Entries in my earlier series were space missions. Entries in this series are observatories. But, what makes for a world wonder of an observatory? Would that simply be a list of the seven largest telescopes? No, I don’t think so. Rather, it would need to be seven observatories that are well known from their uniqueness, wealth of scientific discoveries, and public image. I wanted observatories that are well known for what they’ve done. Well, there are some obvious choices in that category, like the HST and Mt. Palomar. But, there are others as well, known to almost every astronomer (amateur and professional alike) such as Cerro Tololo or McDonald Observatory. There are space based telescopes other than HST, too. And, of course there are radio observatories. So, the choices wind up being pretty huge. In keeping with tradition, I settled on seven.
So, my choices for the Seven Wonders of Astronomy, and the source of blog topics for the next week, are as follow:
1) The Hubble Space Telescope: Well, after all what list of seven wonders of telescopes would not include HST?
2) Arecibo Observatory: The dish is a giant radio telescope and the world’s largest telescope.
3) Yerkes Observatory: The home to the world’s largest refractor, and probably the largest that will ever be built.
4) The Very Large Array: This is radio observatory that uses over two dozen radio telescopes to combine signals to achieve a resolution far more than any single radio telescope.
5) Mount Palomar Observatory: Not the largest telescope any more, by a long shot, but it was for decades.
6) The European Southern Observatory: The only southern hemisphere observatory on my list, though there are lots of others that could justifiably have made the list.
7) Mauna Kea Observatory: This is a collection of telescopes, including the Keck telescopes, atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
As with my Seven Wonders of Space Exploration, it is hard to pare down the possibilities to just seven. So, any comments or suggestions to the list would be appreciated.
-Astroprof
Image Credit: Wikimedia
Astrolink [Global Edition] » Astrosphere for July 23, 2007 | Latest astronomy news in 11 languages on July 23, 2007 at 2:36 pm: 1
[…] With all these talk of the new seven wonders of the world, Astroprof is suggesting the 7 wonders in astronomy. […]
Tom on July 23, 2007 at 5:48 pm: 2
Very traditional point of view! what about neutrino observatories (Superkamiokande) or Cherenkov radiation telescopes?
Astroprof on July 23, 2007 at 10:33 pm: 3
Oh, yes, for sure! Neutrino observatories might should be on the list, but they are less well known, as are gravity wave detectors, etc. That is a good suggestion. I might extend the series to include a neutrino observatory.
daveortz on July 24, 2007 at 1:34 pm: 4
My vote is for Kitt Peak.
Astroprof’s Page » Palomar Spared? on October 25, 2007 at 6:09 pm: 5
[…] A while back, when I was writing my series on the Seven Wonders of Astronomy, I picked the Palomar Observatory as one of the wonders. Over the last week, as news poured out of southern California about the awful fires, I gradually became more concerned about the safety of the observatory. It was built in San Diego County, and that is where some of the worst fires were located. However, word was that the worst fires were well away from the observatory. But, that changed. One of the fires, the Poomacha fire, was actually in the vicinity of Palomar Mountain. They said several times that the observatory was not in immediate danger, and at one point Palomar Observatory was even listed as one of the evacuation sites, indicating that officials didn’t think that the fire was headed that way. And, now the wind has shifted, so the observatory is apparently safe for now. However, at this time it is closed, according to the observatory web site. I don’t know if that means simply not open to the public (but still doing research) or perhaps not even operating. But, at least the observatory seems to be out of danger. […]