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Giant Telescopes Of The Future

Posted by timothy on from the letting-in-the-light dept.

mindpixel writes: "Mindjack just published my article about the the future of very large telescopes, such as the VLT and the OWL which I talked about in my /. interview. In addition, I talk about a future space-based telescope that would use the Sun's gravity to 'image large surface features,' of extrasolar planets, which telescpes like the VLT can just detect, 'such as oceans, continents or ice caps, or even the impact of civilization on such features.'"

8 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Borrrrrrrrring!!!!1! by PhuCknuT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The solar foci telescope idea sounds really cool, but it's got a big limitation. It can only see in 1 direction. With a 450au orbit, its orbital period is around 9500 years. That means it will only move 0.037 degrees through it's orbit every year. And assuming it won't be carrying the fuel to make huge orbital adjustments, it will only be able to view along the plane of it's orbit. We would have to have a good dense area of sky to view before launching something like that. :)

  2. Solar foci telescpoe by PhuCknuT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The solar foci telescope idea sounds really cool, but it's got a big limitation. It can only see in 1 direction. With a 450au orbit, its orbital period is around 9500 years. That means it will only move 0.037 degrees through it's orbit every year. And assuming it won't be carrying the fuel to make huge orbital adjustments, it will only be able to view along the plane of it's orbit. We would have to have a good dense area of sky to view before launching something like that. :)

  3. Links by martyb · · Score: 5, Informative

    A very readable article, but I was surprised to see no other information on the referenced large telescopes. To save others from searching as I did, take a look at:

  4. Not to mention the Square Kilometer Array ... by LL · · Score: 5, Interesting
    ... which is being proposed for outback Australia. According to some of the designs, a log-spiral configuration could extend more than 2000 kilometres (!!) which pretty much spans the whole continent. About 40% of the lens will be concentrated in a single kilometre grid. The interesting feature is that they hope this will be a software telescope with insane amounts of DSPs to help correlate the different frequency radio signals and generate composite snapshots. Browse around that site for some interesting reads!

    LL

  5. Interesting idea but... by rmckeethen · · Score: 5, Informative

    The solar foci telescope sounds like a really interesting idea but I'm not sure it's all that practical now or in the near future. 550 astronomical units is really far out there, several orders of magnitude further then any other space mission to date. Combine that with the proposed size of the mission spacecraft, again vastly larger then anything previously done, and I don't see this happening anytime soon. Still, a very interesting idea though and a logical extension of using extra-galatic objects and looking for lensed objects behind them. Just a few years back that was 'never been done before' stuff too so who knows. In any event, I have to give credit to whomever came up with this idea, they certainly think big!

    More information on the solar foci idea can be found on this page from the Texas Space Grant Consortium.

  6. Make Your Own Telescope by goingware · · Score: 4, Interesting
    While the telescopes described here are beyond the reach of the amateur, it is possible for you to make your own high-quality telescope to enjoy and photograph astronomical sights. I am an amateur telescope maker and I am making an eight-inch Ritchey Chretien reflector.

    You can get books telling how to make telescopes from Willman-Bell and ask for help on the Amateur Telescope Maker's mailing list. Dan Cassaro can sell you a reasonably priced mirror grinding kit.

    You can find many products for amateur astronomers at the Astronomy Mall.

    Clear Skies!

    --
    -- Could you use my software consulting serv
  7. Interferometry by s20451 · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you can get an array with a long enough baseline, and high precision in positioning, you can do interferometry with space telescopes. In principle that could give you enough resolution to spot small planets around nearby stars. JPL is currently studying a space interferometry mission, to fly by 2009, which will fly a small interferometer to demonstrate the potential of this technique.

    --
    Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
  8. atmospheric distortion by raygundan · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Has already become a factor in how big telescopes can be on earth. But, it's already been "fixed", too. The new giant scopes use adaptive optics that actually compensate for atmospheric distortion in realtime.

    To me, that is simply amazing. Adjusting 1600 mirrors realtime to correct tiny air currents!