Telescopes

Types of Telescopes
There are telescopes in all emag. wavelengths.
Optical telescopes use visible light.
Examples: Refracting Telescope, Reflecting Telescope,Cassegrain Telescope

 The Earths atmosphere is very transparent for visible light and radio waves.

For that reason, there are two major types of telescopes on Earth:
Common Optical Telescopes Radio Telescopes

Optical Telescopes
Astronomers use telescopes to gather more light from astronomical objects.

The larger the telescope, the more light it gathers.

Why do we use telescopes?

1. to brighten an image 2. to magnify 3. to get better resolution

Common misconception: magnification is the most important thing.not necessarily

Refracting/Reflecting Telescopes
Refracting Telescope: Lens focuses light onto the focal plane Reflecting Telescope: Concave Mirror focuses light onto the focal plane

Focal length

Focal length

Almost all modern telescopes are reflecting telescopes.

Refraction

 Focal Point
the place where light rays converge to a point

Focal Length
the distance from a curved mirror or lens to its focus

Typical Small Refractor

Reflection

The 100 Telescope (old school)

Multiple Mirror Telescope

Why use a telescope?

Brighten Magnify Resolve

 Large glass lenses sag and warp over time. Costits cheaper (only one sides polished and its easier to smooth it out)

Why are large telescopes reflectors?

Low

High

Light Gather Power

Low

High

Magnification

Low

High

Resolution

The Powers of a Telescope:

1. Light-gathering power: Depends on the surface area A of the primary lens / mirror, proportional to diameter squared:

A= (r)2

Telescopes Brighten
Light-Gathering Power - cross sectional area of the telescope tube (the aperture)
Light gathering power (diameter)2 Ex. If telescope A is 3 inches in diameter and it is compared to telescope B that is 6 inches in diameter..

B is 2x as large as A.so the light gathering power is (2)2 = 4 x light gathering power (If it was 3x largerthen (3)2 = 9 x poweretc.)

Light Gathering Power

10.7 cm camera

15.2 cm camera

Telescopes Magnify
Magnification - the number of times larger an object appears through a telescope than as seen by the naked eye
Focal Length of the Objective Lens or Mirror Magnificat ion Focal Length of the Eyepiece

Magnification
Telescopes are usually labeled as Aperture -- f / # Example: A telescope is labeled as 500 -- f / 7 Q: What is the aperture? A: 500 mm Q: What is the focal length ? A: f = (500 mm) (7) so f = 3500 mm Q: What would the magnification be if we used a 50mm eyepiece? A: mag. = 3500 mm / 50 mm = 70 x

Example Problem
How would you change the magnification for this telescope? Change magnification by changing out eyepieces.

Telescopes Resolve
Angular Resolution - measure of the clarity of images
Telescope with larger diameters are able to resolve smaller objects.

Resolution

Things that Detect Light for Astronomers

Human Eye and Photographic Film
Photometers - an electronic device that measures the brightness of stars CCDs (charge-couple device) - an electronic imaging device that records the intensity of light falling on it

CCD Camera and Color Filters

CCD Imaging
CCD = Charge-coupled device More sensitive than photographic plates Data can be read directly into computer memory, allowing easy electronic manipulations Negative image to enhance contrasts

False-color image to visualize brightness contours

Observing Problems
Bad Weather Light Pollution Dispersion Scintillation
twinkling

Disadvantages of Refracting Telescopes

Chromatic aberration: Different wavelengths are focused at different focal lengths (prism effect). Can be corrected, but not eliminated by second lens out of different material.

Difficult and expensive to produce: All surfaces must be perfectly shaped; glass must be flawless; lens can only be supported at the edges

Observing Problems
Atmospheric dispersion is the spreading out of light into a spectrum by Earths atmosphere.

Venus

Seeing
Weather conditions and turbulence in the atmosphere set further limits to the quality of astronomical images. Bad seeing Good seeing

The Best Location for a Telescope

Far away from civilization to avoid light pollution

Why do stars twinkle?

Scintillation is the twinkling of stars caused by turbulence in the Earths atmosphere.
Turbulence - hot air rising and cool air falling Note: Planets seem to not twinkle because so bright.but can be fuzzier.

Radio Telescopes
Large dish focuses the energy of radio waves onto a small receiver (antenna)

Amplified signals are stored in computers and converted into images, spectra, etc.

Radio Maps
Radio maps are often color coded: Like different colors in a seating chart of a baseball stadium may indicate different seat prices, colors in a radio map can indicate different intensities of the radio emission from different locations on the sky.

Radio Interferometry
Just as for optical telescopes, the resolving power of a radio telescope is amin = 1.22 l/D. For radio telescopes, this is a big problem: Radio waves are much longer than visible light

Use

interferometry to improve resolution!

Interferometry
Recall: Resolving power of a telescope depends on diameter D: amin = 1.22 l/D. This holds true even if not the entire surface is filled out. Combine the signals from several smaller telescopes to simulate one big mirror

Interferometry

Radio Interferometry (2)

The Very Large Array (VLA): 27 dishes are combined to simulate a large dish of 36 km in diameter.

Even larger arrays consist of dishes spread out over the entire U.S. (VLBA = Very Long Baseline Array) or even the whole Earth (VLBI = Very Long Baseline Interferometry)!

The Largest Radio Telescopes

The 300-m telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico

The 100-m Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank, WVa.

 is the largest telescope in space. ...is 30 times more sensitive than ground based telescope (resolves 0.05 arcseconds). ...orbits the Earth every 95 minutes. gives high resolution images because it does not suffer from the effects of atmospheric turbulence.

The Hubble Space Telescope...

Hubbles best images

http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html

Advances in Modern Telescope Design (1)

Modern computer technology has made possible significant advances in telescope design:
Segmented mirror

1. Lighter mirrors with lighter support structures, to be controlled dynamically by computers

Floppy mirror

Examples of Modern Telescope Design (2)

The Very Large Telescope (VLT)

8.1-m mirror of the Gemini Telescopes

Science of Radio Astronomy

Radio astronomy reveals several features, not visible at other wavelengths: Neutral hydrogen clouds (which dont emit any visible light), containing ~ 90 % of all the atoms in the Universe. Molecules (often located in dense clouds, where visible light is completely absorbed).

Radio waves penetrate gas and dust clouds, so we can observe regions from which visible light is heavily absorbed.

Infrared Astronomy
Most infrared radiation is absorbed in the lower atmosphere.
NASA infrared telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Infrared cameras need to be cooled to very low temperatures, usually using liquid nitrogen.

However, from high mountain tops or high-flying air planes, some infrared radiation can still be observed.

NASAs Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)

Infrared light with wavelengths much longer than visible light (Far Infrared) can only be observed from space.

Ultraviolet Astronomy
Ultraviolet radiation with l < 290 nm is completely absorbed in the ozone layer of the atmosphere. Ultraviolet astronomy has to be done from satellites. Several successful ultraviolet astronomy satellites: IUE, EUVE, FUSE Ultraviolet radiation traces hot (tens of thousands of degrees), moderately ionized gas in the Universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope

Launched in 1990; maintained and upgraded by several space shuttle service missions throughout the 1990s and early 2000s

Avoids turbulence in the Earths atmosphere Extends imaging and spectroscopy to (invisible) infrared and ultraviolet

Gamma-Ray Astronomy
Gamma-rays: most energetic electromagnetic radiation; traces the most violent processes in the Universe

The Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory

X-Ray Astronomy
X-rays are completely absorbed in the atmosphere. X-ray astronomy has to be done from satellites. X-rays trace hot (million degrees), highly ionized gas in the Universe. NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory