Comments on: Touring the telescope

By: DIY Dave

DIY Dave — Thu, 07 May 2009 09:42:26 +0000

That is slightly more complicated than my telescope.

By: Rick Nowell

Rick Nowell — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:40:14 +0000

Thanks for that info. Naively, I hadn’t realised
that the US Air Force has its own telescopes. I
guess they need their own, thinking about it. Does
anyone know if they publish some of their ‘research’ findings in papers and suchlike?

Interesting to note that duct tape is used outside
of the ventilation and entertainment industries.
Worth the weight.

By: NGC3314

NGC3314 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:37:11 +0000

Rick – WIYN has some low-order active and adaptive features. The plumbing behind the primary mirror is actuated to keep the mirror properly shaped as temperature and gravitational stresses change (referred to as active optics). The camera we’re using incorporates what some cal first-order adaptive optics, following the motion of the image centroids with measurements 20 times per second when there are bright enough reference stars in the field. Laser AO systems are used mostly on lager instruments (although the USAF has two telescopes this size well equipped for AO), and I don’t think lasers have ben used at Kitt Peak. One reason may be aircraft avoidance – there’s a lot of civilian and military traffic nearby, which would require shutting down the laser frequently.

You can’t have leading-edge technology without duct tape. As the astronauts of Apollo 17 found out, it even works on the lunar surface.

By: Rick Nowell

Rick Nowell — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:31:44 +0000

I was wondering whether there was adaptive optics
on the telescope you’re using. That should help
with better definition and suchlike. Do you use
a laser pointed at the sky to help measure atmos-
pheric disturbance? If so, I would be interested
to know what that involves. Keep up the good work!
Is that silver gaffer, or duct, or cloth tape in the bottom right? It gets everywhere!