MetaFilter posts tagged with telescope

Liquid mirror telescopes

Upton O'Good — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:08:11 -0800

A liquid mirror telescope is made by spinning a reflective fluid, such as mercury, at a constant rate. This rotation produces a parabolic surface, which is an ideal shape for a telescope mirror. (You can try this yourself.) While these mirrors can be built to be large and orders of magnitude cheaper than solid mirrors, they have the disadvantage that they can only look straight up. Creating mirrors this way is not new; they have a history [.ps] that dates back to Newton. However, they have recently regained attention as the technology behind proposals to build an enormous (20m+) telescope on the moon. (A less technical treatment here.)

Telescope making

Upton O'Good — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:59:45 -0800

Mark VandeWettering makes telescopes, and has written a set of guides for those who would like to build their own. Francis O'Reilly has made a similar set of guides, except as a series of videos.

A Star is Unborn

Kronos_to_Earth — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:30:57 -0800

“Here was an object brand new. At first we didn’t recognize it.” Dr. Alicia Soderberg on the discovery of Supernova 2008D, using the Swift satellite telescope....

Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope

stbalbach — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:27:42 -0800

Microsoft's much anticipated WorldWide Telescope was released today (in the past hour actually). Article in New York Times and TED speech.

Stars In Your Eyes

Miko — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:36:12 -0800

See Saturn this Saturday April 12 is the second annual International Sidewalk Astronomy Night, a worldwide event coordinated by the Sidewalk Astronomers. The group, founded in 1968 by John Dobson (subject of this documentary), is dedicated to a sort of guerrilla astronomy -- experienced stargeeks bringing their really good telescopes out to places where people are. So even on your way to the bars, the shows, and the honky-tonk you can see stuff like this and this - like these people did.

Searching for Dark Matter

Burhanistan — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 20:55:02 -0800

Scientists at Amundsen-Scott Station at the South Pole have begun searching for the elusive dark matter using the South Pole Telescope. The Station has been visited here before, but not in this context.

HobbySpace

Upton O'Good — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:22:33 -0800

HobbySpace hosts an exhaustive collection of information and links about space-related hobbies, including amateur astronomy, satellite design, and rocketry for both beginners and experts.

Porter Garden Telescopes

mcwetboy — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:19:59 -0800

In addition to his work on the design of the 200-inch Hale telescope, amateur astronomer Russell W. Porter (1871-1949) designed and produced a remarkable, bronze-cast garden telescope in the 1920s. Fewer than 60 of these unusual Newtonian reflectors were ever made, and they're even harder to find now: earlier this year, one went for $18,000 at auction. But a reproduction of the Porter Garden Telescope is now available, for a mere $59,000 (it's cast bronze on a marble pedestal); a local cable station has a profile of the people behind it. Via Sky and Telescope.

Billions and Billions

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:38:08 -0800

Billions and Billions astrophotography CCD gallery / film gallery / equipment / tutorials

Best of the Webb

BlackLeotardFront — Fri, 11 May 2007 08:38:41 -0800

"Clearly we need a much bigger telescope to go back much further in time to see the very birth of the Universe." The venerable Hubble space telescope is going to be replaced by what looks like a honeycomb on a box of chocolates. Of course, if it takes more pictures like this (XL), nobody is going to complain about its looks.