Observatories | Universe Today

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Are you ready for a great dark sky weekend? Then it's time to walk into the galaxy field of dreams as we take a closer look at part of Markarian's Chain. Even smaller telescopes and larger binoculars will be happy with this weekend's globular clusters! Need more or something totally unusual? Then join us as we take a look at a Wolf-Rayet star. Are you ready? Then it's time to head out under dark skies, because… Here's what's up! Read more…

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Our senses can only detect a fraction of the phenomena happening in the Universe. That's why scientists and engineers develop detectors, to let us see radiation and particles that we could never detect with our eyes and ears. This week we'll go through them all, so you can understand how we see what we can't see.

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Detectors - Show notes and transcript

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Hold on to your hats… It's happening again. According to AAVSO Special Notice #105 released on April 19, another possible nova event is now occurring in Sagittarius. Through their quick actions, Macedon Ranges Observatory in Central Victoria, Australia was on top the alert and imaging. Read more…

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Clouds got you down? No chance of seeing V2491 Cyg because of the weather? Are you sleeping when Cygnus is up? One of the most beautiful facets of having an astronomer around is being able to share information with other observatories around the world and put them to work. This time the job was handed to our friends in Australia who were able to produce for us an exclusive look at an elusive nova. Read more…

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By combining ground-based optical observations with space-borne infrared images from Spitzer, an incredible new view of mysterious Omega Centauri has been revealed. Astronomers have had a hard time identifying what type of galaxy Omega Centauri actually is, so any new information on the cluster of millions of stars is needed. By combining observations in different wavelengths, stars of different ages are highlighted, possibly aiding our understanding about the origins of Omega Centauri and answer the question: Why is this galaxy so strange?
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The United Kingdom’s Wide Area Search for Planets, known as SuperWASP consists of two 8-camera robotic observatories that cover both hemispheres of the sky. In the past 6 months an international team of astronomers have used these unique observatories to discover 10 new extra-solar planets, making SuperWASP the most successful planet-hunting observatory in the world. The discovery of these planets was announced on April 1 by Dr. Don Pollacco of Queen's University in Belfast at the Royal Astronomy Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in the UK.
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First light is a big deal. That's when a new observatory opens up for the first time and gathers light on its detectors. It's even a bigger deal when the world's most powerful telescope sees the night sky for the first time. Astronomers get ready for the Large Binocular Telescope.
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OK, so there have been some strange things going on between us Earthlings and aliens lately. The deep-space Pioneer and Voyager probes carried images and artefacts of our culture into the cosmos decades ago. This plan has now been upstaged by the Deep Space Network transmitting a Beatles tune in the direction of the star Polaris. Both are different methods in an attempt to achieve the same thing - to contact alien civilizations. Extraterrestrials might even be trying to communicate with us by playing around with stars or blasting neutrinos at us…

But, in the next episode of this epic saga, as the human race feels more and more alone in a seemingly lifeless, but expanding universe… [break - this programme will be continued after a message from our sponsors]
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It is official: the UK is back as a full member of the Gemini Observatory international partnership. At the beginning of the month, The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) signalled that the UK would partially return to the project after January's shock announcement that Britain was going to pull all its financial support out of the observatory. Today, the STFC has reinstated the UK as a full member of the Gemini Project. What a rollercoaster ride…
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Perhaps one of the best reasons to return to the Moon will be the boon to astronomy. Without an atmosphere, an observatory the Moon won't have to peer through an obscuring atmosphere, but people will still be able to walk over and fix it - and even upgrade it - into the future. It's the best of both worlds. It's no surprise then, that engineers are working on plans for lunar observatories. When the next wave of astronauts return to the Moon, they'll be bringing their 'scopes.
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Highly energetic solar particles are generated by solar flares and can be harmful to astronauts and sensitive satellite circuits. Solar flares are most likely to occur during periods of heightened solar activity (i.e. during solar maximum at the peak of the 11 year solar cycle), and future manned missions will need to be highly cautious not to be unprotected in space at these times. Many attempts are underway at forecasting solar activity so "solar storms" can be predicted, but a form of early warning system is required to allow time for astronauts to seek cover and satellites put in a low-power state. Now, using the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), scientists are testing a new method of detecting high energy solar ions, in real-time.
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The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) appear to have given UK astronomers a temporary reprieve over their access to the Gemini Observatories in Chile and Hawaii. As previously reported on the Universe Today, UK astronomers were stunned at the decision to totally pull out from the international collaboration with one of the worlds most advanced telescope systems. It now appears that the STFC is reinstating the British share in the project by negotiating a reduction in funding, rather than negotiating its withdrawal from the project.
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If you can't afford to send a telescope to space, you'll want the next best thing; a location on Earth which is cold, dry and at a high altitude. Perhaps the best place on Earth is "Dome A", a high altitude region in Antarctica - the coldest and driest place on Earth. A team of astronomers recently climbed the summit of Dome A, and installed a new robotic observatory that should see some amazingly clear skies.
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UK astronomers have been dealt a serious and unexpected blow. Funding cuts to space research has stopped the nation from continuing its work at the Gemini observatories in Hawaii and Chile. The UK helped to build the 8.1 meter telescopes and have ploughed £70 million ($140 million) to date into the construction and development of the sites since the late 1990's. In an effort to plug a £80 million ($160 million) deficit in space research funding, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has signalled to researchers that the UK will be pulling out of the project, leaving astronomers bemused and angry.
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Telescopes on the ground – while having all sorts of good qualities – have the disadvantage of peering through the whole of the atmosphere when looking at the stars. Space-based telescopes like Hubble are an effective way around this, but launching a telescope into space and maintaining it is not exactly cheap. What about something in between the two?

This is where SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) flies in. SOFIA is a converted 747SP airliner that used to carry passengers for United Airlines and Pan Am, but now only has one voyager: an infrared telescope.

SOFIA recently completed the first phase of flight tests to determine its structural integrity, aerodynamics and handling abilities. This first series of tests were done with the door through which the telescope will peer closed, and open-door testing will begin in late 2008. Read more…

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As telescopes go, Hubble isn't actually that large; it's only 2.4 metres. But it has a huge advantage over the much larger ground-based observatories: it's up in space, high above the distortions of the Earth's atmosphere. But astronomers have developed techniques to overcome the atmospheric blurring, creating some of the most detailed images ever seen from the Earth.
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If you ever wondered why telescopes are perched atop the highest mountains, with the clearest skies, just check out this picture. That's the night sky above the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, located atop Paranal, a 2,600 metre (8,500 foot) mountain in Chile's Atacama Desert. The photograph was taken by ESO astronomer Yuri Beletsky.
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Scientists have reported the first conclusive evidence of water vapour in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet. Before we load up the spaceships to search for life, however, consider the fact that this planet, HD 189733b, is larger than Jupiter, and orbits its parent star in just 2.2 days. That's hot hot water.
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If you've got a really big rocket, what should you use it for? If you're an astronomer, you'll want it used to launch really big telescopes; observatories that would dwarf the Hubble Space Telescope.
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NASA-funded researchers are working on a clever technology that could deploy a gigantic telescope made from rotating liquid… on the Moon! It sounds like science fiction, but they've gotten smaller prototypes to work, and the technology should work even better on the lower lunar gravity.
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If you think you need to install a telescope on a mountaintop, or even above the surface of the Earth, think again. A new telescope currently being installed near the South Pole has detectors more than 2 kilometres under the surface of the Antarctic ice cap. For the neutrinos it's searching for, that much ice is the same as nothing at all.
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A key scientific instrument attached to the Gemini South observatory was damaged in late April when a malfunctioning heater raised its temperature to 200-degrees Celsius. It was never meant to withstand temperatures this high, and will be out of commission for several months while technicians make repairs.
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If you want clear skies for astronomy, you need to get above the atmosphere. At the top of high mountain is good, space is even better, but that's expensive. A new NASA infrared observatory is going to be flying as high as possible, to get above most of the atmosphere, at a fraction of the cost of a space mission. It's called the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), and the specially modified 747 aircraft made its first checkout flight last week - NASA wanted to see how it handles at low-speed and low-altitude.
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Telescopes located on the Earth suffer from having to peer through our thick atmosphere. That's why they're located at high altitudes, where the air is cold and clear. In fact, the best place on Earth to locate a telescope is in Antarctica - the air doesn't get any colder or clearer.
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One of the most powerful new space observatories, ESA's Planck mission, reached an important milestone with the integration of several instruments into the main satellite. The integration was performed by Alcatel Alenia Space in Cannes, France.
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