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Observatory. a place or building from which astronomical observations are made modern observatories have telescopes. Earth’s first observatory was built 7000 years ago during the Neolithic Period in what is now Germany. Called the Goseck Circle, it was discovered in 2002 and reconstructed.
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Observatory • a place or building from which astronomical observations are made • modern observatories have telescopes
Earth’s first observatory was built 7000 years ago during the Neolithic Period in what is now Germany. Called the Goseck Circle, it was discovered in 2002 and reconstructed.
The reconstruction occurred in 2005 to accommodate tourists.
To ensure authenticity, workmen stripped more than 2000 oak posts by hand and built the enclosure using tools and methods the Neolithic peoples would have used.
The Southwest gate marks the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
The Southeast entrance marks the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. In Neolithic times, farmers knew when to plant crops by marking this date.
This diagram of a reconstructed Stonehenge shows the alignment at the solstice.
On the winter solstice the sun shines through a roofbox directly over the main entrance and along a passage into the chamber.
The inner chamber is very small. Its interior walls include carvings. No one knows what they mean.
The Sphinx, Egypt 2500 BC New evidence suggests that the pyramid complex, including the Sphinx, was built to follow the sun’s movements across the sky.
Sundials and Obelisks date back to the same time period as New Grange, about 3500 BC. This Greek sundial is from the 3rd - 2nd century BC.
The oldest sundial in England is Bewcastle cross. It is 14.5 feet tall and dates to the 7th century.
In the 13th century, the Incas worshipped the sun at Machu Pichu in the Andes Mountains of Peru.
They aligned a temple with the sun so that its rays would shine through a small window on the winter solstice.
Keppel Henge was completed in 2000 in Canada. It is a 45 foot diameter stone circle with an 11 foot central pointer stone made of granite that casts a shadow on large limestone blocks at different times of the year. The stones each have names.
The pointer stone’s shadow falls on the winter solstice stone.
The National Solar Observatory is a group of telescopes working together for NASA to study the sun. These are observatories on Kitt Peak in Arizona.
The McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope on Kitt Peak is the largest telescope in the world. It is the only solar telescope in the world using infrared.
ALMA • Single radio telescope with array pf 66 antennae • World’s highest at 16,500 ft. in Andes Mountains • Cost more than $1 billion • Operational at end of 2011
Astronomer Edwin P. Hubble peers through the Hooker Telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California.
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990. It orbits Earth every 97 minutes from a height of 360 miles. Hubble looks at ultraviolet, visible and infrared parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Several Space Shuttle missions have been sent to repair Hubble. Here you can see an astronaut at work on Hubble.
Satellites in Space File:ConstellationGPS.gif - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory is a space probe launched in December 1995.
SOHO was launched aboard this rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida.
SOHO orbits the sun with the Earth. It was supposed to last only two years but it is still working 13 years after launch! SOHO has discovered ripples on the sun’s surface.
