Archives for the 'telescopes' Category
Speculum Metal Mirrors
Published on 1 Oct 2007 at 4:10 pm.
4 Comments.
Filed under history, telescopes.
In my office and at home are a lot of books. Some of these books are quite old. I have a few hand-me-down books that an old astronomy professor gave to me when he retired. At least one of those, his professor had given to him. I like my old books. […]
Mauna Kea Observatories
Published on 5 Aug 2007 at 1:33 pm.
7 Comments.
Filed under astronomy, observatories, telescopes, wonders.
Situated atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii are 13 telescopes funded by 11 countries: 9 optical telescopes, 2 submillimeter telescopes, 1 submillimeter array, and 1 radio telescope. All together, this comprises the Mauna Kea Observatories (or the Mauna Kea Observatory as the whole installation is sometimes called).
The optical telescopes range in size from a […]
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Mount Palomar Observatory
Published on 3 Aug 2007 at 12:31 pm.
7 Comments.
Filed under astronomy, observatories, telescopes, wonders.
Located atop Palomar Mountain in San Diego County, California, is the Palomar Observatory, operated by the California Institute of Technology.
Most famous among the instruments at Palomar Observatory is the 200-inch Hale Telescope, which was the largest telescope on Earth for close to three decades. However, the Hale Telescope is not the only instrument at […]
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Yerkes Observatory
Published on 26 Jul 2007 at 12:44 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under astronomy, observatories, telescopes, wonders.
Near Williams Bay, Wisconsin, right near the shores of Lake Geneva is Yerkes Observatory, owned and operated by the University of Chicago. The Yerkes Observatory is famous for housing the 40-inch Yerkes Refractor, the largest refracting telescope ever put into service, and for a while the largest telescope of any sort in operation in […]
SOFIA Flies!
Published on 27 Apr 2007 at 2:27 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under aeronautics, airborne telescopes, observatories, telescopes.
Visual light is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. While historically astronomy started with observations of visual light, that really doesn’t see everything that there is to see out there. Many objects emit primarily infrared light, radio waves, X-rays, or any of the other wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. And, a […]
Eyepiece Filters
Published on 31 Dec 2006 at 8:54 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under amateur astronomy, telescopes.
Once you get comfortable with your telescope, you might want to consider buying filters for your eyepieces. As I said in my eyepiece post a couple of days ago, telescope eyepieces come in standard diameters. For at least half a century, they have also had standard thread in them, allowing threaded filters to […]
Your first telescope - Part 2 (eyepieces)
Published on 29 Dec 2006 at 11:58 pm.
7 Comments.
Filed under amateur astronomy, telescopes.
An important part of a telescope is the eyepiece. Often novices to telescopes don’t realize this. The objective (lens or mirror) focuses the light, but the eyepiece is the lens that you look through to put the light back into a form that your eye can use. Since this is the part […]
