Category: Telescopes

  Watch the Casting of a Giant Mirror for the First Extremely Large Telescope A look inside the Mirror Lab, where astronomers go when they need some serious glass. Source: motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bj7d3z/mirror-giant-magellan-telescope-extremely-large

  Astronomers Will Fight to Save WFIRST Space Telescope from Being Axed Leaders of the American Astronomical Society have denounced the White House’s proposed cancellation of NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). Source: www.space.com/39714-aas-responds-wfirst-proposed-cancellation.html

  ESO’s VLT Working as 16-metre Telescope for First Time – ESPRESSO instrument achieves first light with all four Unit Telescopes The ESPRESSO instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile has for the first time been used to combine light from all four of the 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes. Combining light from the Unit Telescopes…

The wonderful Hooker 100″ telescope on Mt Wilson has turned 100! Access Denied ​ PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Astronomers are celebrating the centennial of the 100-inch (2,540-millimeter) Hooker Telescope at Southern California‘s Mount Wilson Observatory . The reflector telescope’s first observations occurred in 1917 on the night of Nov. 1 and into the morning of Nov.…

Planning has started on the next generation of The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). NRAO and AUI are launching development of a new radio-telescope system with the advanced capabilities to answer critical scientific questions of the coming decades. Source: public.nrao.edu/news/next-generation-radio-telescope/

Rear view of New Technology Telescope (NTT) at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, located on the outskirts of the Chilean Atacama Desert, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile. Inaugurated in 1989, the 3.58-metre NTT was the first telescope in the world to have a computer-controlled main mirror. This mirror is flexible; in a process called adaptive optics, its…

Light pollution. Groan.   Astronomers, billboard companies clash over signs that shine PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona has long been a haven for astronomers who take advantage of its mountain peaks and vast stretches of dark, desert sky to gaze at stars… Source: www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3473592/Astronomers-billboard-companies-clash-signs-shine.html

Amazing comparison of the growth in telescope sizes over the years. 

For those who want to see how to drive a big, but manually controlled telescope, here’s the user guide for the 36″ Lick Refractor