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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. in 6-8 meter telescopes. WIYN TECHNOLOGY. 8-10 Meter Telescopes Today. Keck Telescopes Gemini North and South ESO’s Very Large Telescope
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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
in 6-8 meter telescopes WIYN TECHNOLOGY
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 Telescopeson Mauna Kea • Two 10-meter telescopes • “segmented” mirrors • 36 hexagonal segments • Keck I in 1993; Keck II in 1996
ESO’s VLTCerro Paranal, Chile Four 8.2 meter telescopes • Antu (the Sun) • Kueyen (the Moon) • Melipel (the Southern Cross) • Yepun (Venus - as evening star)
Subaru on Mauna Kea • Built by Japan • 8.2-meter mirror • supported on air • superb images
Hobby-Eberlyand SALT • 9-meter effective aperture • fixed altitude • in West Texas and South Africa
6.5-meter Telescopes Magellan Telescopes Twin 6.5-m in Chile Borosilicate honeycomb mirrors 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
5” 40” 4’ >220 stars in 5”x5” UH-88”, Courtesy W.Brandner, 0.65” seeing The Power of Adaptive Optics Gemini N/Hokupa’a-QUIRC (U of H/NSF)
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 Pluto and Charon with Adaptive Optics on Gemini Gemini Observatory & U. Hawaii
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 • 20 and 30-meter telescopes • 8-meter survey telescope • James Webb Space Telescope • Virtual Observatory
Lasers will produce artificial stars in the sky to help focus starlight Adaptive Optics will be a key component of 20 and 30 meter telescopes Bigger than a football field!
Large-aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope LSST • 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
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