1.
Mauna Kea Observatories
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The facilities are located in a 525-acre special land use zone known as the Astronomy Precinct, which is located within the 11, 228-acre Mauna Kea Science Reserve. The Astronomy Precinct was established in 1967 and is located on land protected by the Historical Preservation Act for its significance to Hawaiian culture. After studying photos for NASAs Apollo program that contained greater detail than any ground based telescope, while he first began looking in Chile, he also made the decision to perform tests in the Hawaiian Islands. Tests on Mauis Haleakalā were promising, but the mountain was too low in the inversion layer, on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, Mauna Kea is considered the highest island mountain in the world. While the summit is covered with snow, the air is extremely dry. Kuiper began looking into the possibility of an observatory on Mauna Kea, after testing, he discovered the low humidity was perfect for infrared signals. He persuaded Hawaiʻi Governor John A. Burns to bulldoze a road to the summit where he built a small telescope on Puʻu Poliʻahu. The peak was the second highest on the mountain with the highest peak being holy ground, next, Kuiper tried enlisting NASA to fund a larger facility with a large telescope, housing and other needed structures. NASA, in turn decided to make the open to competition. Professor of physics, John Jefferies of the University of Hawaii placed a bid on behalf of the university, Jefferies had gained his reputation through observations at Sacramento Peak Observatory. The proposal was for a telescope to serve both the needs of NASA and the university. Kuiper would abandon his site over the competition and begin work in Arizona on a different NASA project, after considerable testing by Jefferies team, the best locations were determined to be near the summit at the top of the cinder cones. Testing also determined Mauna Kea to be superb for nighttime viewing due to many factors, including the air, constant trade winds. Jefferies would build a 2.24 meter telescope with the State of Hawaiʻi agreeing to build a reliable, building began in 1967 and first light was seen in 1970. Other groups began requesting subleases on the newly accessible mountaintop, by 1970, two 24 in telescopes had been constructed by the United States Air Force and Lowell Observatory. In 1973, Canada and France agreed to build the 3.6 m CFHT on Mauna Kea, however, local organizations started to raise concerns about the environmental impact of the observatory. This led the Department of Land and Natural Resources to prepare a management plan, drafted in 1977. In January 1982, the University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents approved a plan to support the development of scientific facilities at the site
2.
Waimea, Hawaii County, Hawaii
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Waimea is a census-designated place in Hawaiʻi County, Hawaiʻi, United States. The population was 7,028 at the 2000 census and 9,212 at the 2010 census. Since each U. S. state cannot have more than one post office of the name, and there is a post office in in Waimea, Kauai county. Waimea is the largest town in the interior of the Big Island, the Parker Ranch in and around Waimea is the largest privately owned cattle ranch in the US, and the annual Fourth of July rodeo is a major event. The Waimea Cherry Blossom Heritage Festival, held annually in the first week of February, has become another major event of the town. In the center of town you can find Hawaiian art at the Isaacs Art Center, the Wishard Gallery, Waimea is also home to the headquarters of two astronomical observatories located on Mauna Kea, the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. It is also headquarters of the International Lunar Observatory Association and it is believed that the watershed area of the Kohala mountains once supported several thousand native Hawaiians, who practiced subsistence agriculture, made kapa, and thatched living structures. As the Europeans arrived in the area, most of the forests were harvested. California longhorn cattle were given as a gift to Hawaiian King Kamehameha I by British Captain George Vancouver in 1793. In 1809, John Palmer Parker arrived to the area after jumping ship and over time became employed by the king to tame the population of cattle, which at this point had grown out of control. In 1815 Parker married Kipikane, the daughter of a chief, and as a family developed what is now Parker Ranch. Waimeas post office name Kamuela is the Hawaiian name for Samuel, named after Samuel Parker, the king hired these vaqueros to teach Hawaiians herding and ranching skills, and by 1836 the island had working cowboys. As the Hawaiian culture and Latin vaquero cultured commingled, a breed of cowboy emerged. During World War II beef and vegetable prices increased and farmers returned to cultivate maize, beets, cabbage, farm and ranchland acreage increased from 75 in 1939 to 518 in 1946. Waimea also saw many soldiers during this time who built a temporary tent city. When the war was over and the military had left, Waimea had an entertainment center, now Kahilu Theatre, Waimea is located at 20°1′26″N 155°38′50″W, and is 2676 feet above sea level. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has an area of 38.8 square miles. As of the census of 2000, there were 7,028 people,2,371 households, the population density was 181.4 people per square mile
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
First light (astronomy)
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In astronomy, first light is the first use of a telescope to take an astronomical image after it has been constructed. This is often not the first viewing using the telescope, optical tests will probably have been performed during daylight to adjust the components. The first light image is normally of little scientific interest and is of poor quality since the various elements are yet to be adjusted for optimum efficiency. A well-known and spectacular astronomical object is chosen as a subject. For example, the 5. 08-metre Hale Telescope saw first light January 26,1949, the image was published in many magazines and is available on Caltech Archives. The Isaac Newton Telescope had two first lights, one in England in 1965 with its mirror, and another in 1984 at La Palma island. The second first light was done with a camera that showed the Crab Pulsar flashing. The Large Binocular Telescope had its first light with a primary mirror on October 12,2005. The second primary mirror was installed in January 2006 and became operational in January 2008. The 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias had a first light image of Tycho 1205081 on 14 July 2007, the IRIS solar space observatory achieved first light on July 17,2013. The PI noted, The quality of images and spectra we are receiving from IRIS is amazing and this is just what we were hoping for
5.
Optical telescope
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The larger the objective, the more light the telescope collects and the finer detail it resolves. People use telescopes and binoculars for activities such as astronomy, ornithology, pilotage and reconnaissance. The telescope is more a discovery of optical craftsmen than an invention of a scientist and it is in the Netherlands in 1608 where the first recorded optical telescopes appeared. The invention is credited to the spectacle makers Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen in Middelburg, galileo greatly improved on these designs the following year, and is generally credited as the first to use a telescope for astronomy. Galileos telescope used Hans Lippersheys design of an objective lens and a concave eye lens. Johannes Kepler proposed an improvement on the design used a convex eyepiece. For reflecting telescopes, which use a mirror in place of the objective lens. The theoretical basis for curved mirrors behaving similar to lenses was probably established by Alhazen, the late 20th century has seen the development of adaptive optics and space telescopes to overcome the problems of astronomical seeing. The basic scheme is that the primary light-gathering element the objective and this image may be recorded or viewed through an eyepiece, which acts like a magnifying glass. The eye then sees an inverted magnified virtual image of the object, most telescope designs produce an inverted image at the focal plane, these are referred to as inverting telescopes. In fact, the image is both turned upside down and reversed left to right, so that altogether it is rotated by 180 degrees from the object orientation, in astronomical telescopes the rotated view is normally not corrected, since it does not affect how the telescope is used. However, a diagonal is often used to place the eyepiece in a more convenient viewing location, and in that case the image is erect. In terrestrial telescopes such as spotting scopes, monoculars and binoculars, There are telescope designs that do not present an inverted image such as the Galilean refractor and the Gregorian reflector. These are referred to as erecting telescopes, many types of telescope fold or divert the optical path with secondary or tertiary mirrors. These may be part of the optical design, or may simply be used to place the eyepiece or detector at a more convenient position. Telescope designs may also use specially designed additional lenses or mirrors to improve image quality over a field of view. Design specifications relate to the characteristics of the telescope and how it performs optically, several properties of the specifications may change with the equipment or accessories used with the telescope, such as Barlow lenses, star diagonals and eyepieces. These interchangeable accessories dont alter the specifications of the telescope, however they alter the way the telescopes properties function, typically magnification, angular resolution and FOV
6.
Reflecting telescope
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A reflecting telescope is an optical telescope which uses a single or combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century as an alternative to the telescope which. Although reflecting telescopes produce other types of aberrations, it is a design that allows for very large diameter objectives. Almost all of the telescopes used in astronomy research are reflectors. Reflecting telescopes come in many variations and may employ extra optical elements to improve image quality or place the image in a mechanically advantageous position. Since reflecting telescopes use mirrors, the design is referred to as a catoptric telescope. The idea that curved mirrors behave like lenses dates back at least to Alhazens 11th century treatise on optics, the potential advantages of using parabolic mirrors, primarily reduction of spherical aberration with no chromatic aberration, led to many proposed designs for reflecting telescopes. The most notable being James Gregory, who published a design for a ‘reflecting’ telescope in 1663. It would be ten years, before the experimental scientist Robert Hooke was able to build this type of telescope, Isaac Newton has been generally credited with building the first reflecting telescope in 1668. It used a spherically ground metal primary mirror and a diagonal mirror in an optical configuration that has come to be known as the Newtonian telescope. A curved primary mirror is the reflector telescopes basic optical element that creates an image at the focal plane, the distance from the mirror to the focal plane is called the focal length. The primary mirror in most modern telescopes is composed of a glass cylinder whose front surface has been ground to a spherical or parabolic shape. A thin layer of aluminum is deposited onto the mirror. Some telescopes use primary mirrors which are made differently, molten glass is rotated to make its surface paraboloidal, and is kept rotating while it cools and solidifies. The resulting mirror shape approximates a desired paraboloid shape that requires grinding and polishing to reach the exact figure needed. Reflecting telescopes, just like any other system, do not produce perfect images. The use of mirrors avoids chromatic aberration but they produce other types of aberrations, to avoid this problem most reflecting telescopes use parabolic shaped mirrors, a shape that can focus all the light to a common focus. Field curvature - The best image plane is in general curved and it is sometimes corrected by a field flattening lens
7.
Observatory
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An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed, historically, observatories were as simple as containing an astronomical sextant or Stonehenge. Astronomical observatories are mainly divided into four categories, space based, airborne, ground based, ground-based observatories, located on the surface of Earth, are used to make observations in the radio and visible light portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Most optical telescopes are housed within a dome or similar structure, Telescope domes have a slit or other opening in the roof that can be opened during observing, and closed when the telescope is not in use. In most cases, the upper portion of the telescope dome can be rotated to allow the instrument to observe different sections of the night sky. Radio telescopes usually do not have domes, for optical telescopes, most ground-based observatories are located far from major centers of population, to avoid the effects of light pollution. The ideal locations for modern observatories are sites that have dark skies, a percentage of clear nights per year, dry air. At high elevations, the Earths atmosphere is thinner, thereby minimizing the effects of atmospheric turbulence, sites that meet the above criteria for modern observatories include the southwestern United States, Hawaii, Canary Islands, the Andes, and high mountains in Mexico such as Sierra Negra. Major optical observatories include Mauna Kea Observatory and Kitt Peak National Observatory in the USA, Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in Spain, and Paranal Observatory in Chile. Specific research study performed in 2009 shows that the best possible location for ground-based observatory on Earth is Ridge A — a place in the part of Eastern Antarctica. This location provides the least atmospheric disturbances and best visibility, beginning in 1930s, radio telescopes have been built for use in the field of radio astronomy to observe the Universe in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Since the mid-20th century, a number of observatories have been constructed at very high altitudes, above 4. The largest and most notable of these is the Mauna Kea Observatory, the Chacaltaya Astrophysical Observatory in Bolivia, at 5,230 m, was the worlds highest permanent astronomical observatory from the time of its construction during the 1940s until 2009. It has now surpassed by the new University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory. As a result, the resolution of space telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope is often much smaller than a ground-based telescope with a similar aperture. However, all these advantages do come with a price, Space telescopes are much more expensive to build than ground-based telescopes. Due to their location, space telescopes are also difficult to maintain. The Hubble Space Telescope was serviced by the Space Shuttle while many other space telescopes cannot be serviced at all, Airborne observatories have the advantage of height over ground installations, putting them above most of the Earths atmosphere
8.
Angular resolution
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In scientific analysis, in general, the term resolution is used to describe the precision with which any instrument measures and records any variable in the specimen or sample under study. The imaging systems resolution can be limited either by aberration or by diffraction causing blurring of the image and these two phenomena have different origins and are unrelated. Aberrations can be explained by geometrical optics and can in principle be solved by increasing the optical quality —, on the other hand, diffraction comes from the wave nature of light and is determined by the finite aperture of the optical elements. The lens circular aperture is analogous to a version of the single-slit experiment. The interplay between diffraction and aberration can be characterised by the point spread function, the narrower the aperture of a lens the more likely the PSF is dominated by diffraction. If the distance is greater, the two points are well resolved and if it is smaller, they are regarded as not resolved, Rayleigh defended this criteria on sources of equal strength. Considering diffraction through an aperture, this translates into, θ =1.220 λ D where θ is the angular resolution, λ is the wavelength of light. The factor 1.220 is derived from a calculation of the position of the first dark circular ring surrounding the central Airy disc of the diffraction pattern and this number is more precisely 1.21966989. The first zero of the order-one Bessel function of the first kind J1 divided by π, the formal Rayleigh criterion is close to the empirical resolution limit found earlier by the English astronomer W. R. Dawes who tested human observers on close binary stars of equal brightness. The result, θ =4. 3% dip, modern image processing techniques including deconvolution of the point spread function allow resolution of binaries with even less angular separation. The angular resolution may be converted into a resolution, Δℓ. For a microscope, that distance is close to the length f of the objective. For this case, the Rayleigh criterion reads, Δ ℓ =1.220 f λ D. This is the size, in the plane, of smallest object that the lens can resolve. The size is proportional to wavelength, λ, and thus, for example and this result is related to the Fourier properties of a lens.220 f λ D =1.22 λ ⋅. Since this is the radius of the Airy disk, the resolution is better estimated by the diameter,2.44 λ ⋅ Point-like sources separated by a smaller than the angular resolution cannot be resolved. A single optical telescope may have a resolution less than one arcsecond. The angular resolution R of a telescope can usually be approximated by R = λ D where λ is the wavelength of the observed radiation, the Resulting R is in radians
9.
Focal length
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The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light. For an optical system in air, it is the distance over which initially collimated rays are brought to a focus. A system with a focal length has greater optical power than one with a long focal length. For a thin lens in air, the length is the distance from the center of the lens to the principal foci of the lens. For a converging lens, the length is positive, and is the distance at which a beam of collimated light will be focused to a single spot. For a diverging lens, the length is negative, and is the distance to the point from which a collimated beam appears to be diverging after passing through the lens. The focal length of a lens can be easily measured by using it to form an image of a distant light source on a screen. The lens is moved until an image is formed on the screen. In this case 1/u is negligible, and the length is then given by f ≈ v. Back focal length or back focal distance is the distance from the vertex of the last optical surface of the system to the focal point. For an optical system in air, the focal length gives the distance from the front. If the surrounding medium is not air, then the distance is multiplied by the index of the medium. Some authors call these distances the front/rear focal lengths, distinguishing them from the front/rear focal distances, defined above. In general, the length or EFL is the value that describes the ability of the optical system to focus light. The other parameters are used in determining where an image will be formed for an object position. The quantity 1/f is also known as the power of the lens. The corresponding front focal distance is, FFD = f, in the sign convention used here, the value of R1 will be positive if the first lens surface is convex, and negative if it is concave. The value of R2 is negative if the surface is convex
10.
Telescope mount
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A telescope mount is a mechanical structure which supports a telescope. Telescope mounts are designed to support the mass of the telescope, many sorts of mounts have been developed over the years, with the majority of effort being put into systems that can track the motion of the stars as the Earth rotates. Fixed-altitude mounts usually have the primary optics fixed at an angle while rotating horizontally. They can cover the sky but only observe objects for the short time when that object passes a specific altitude. Transit mounts are single axis mounts fixed in azimuth while rotating in altitude and this allows the telescope to view the whole sky, but only when the Earths rotation allows the objects to cross through that narrow north-south line. This type of mount is used in Transit telescopes, designed for precision astronomical measurement, Transit mounts are also used to save on cost or where the instruments mass makes movement on more than one axis very difficult, such as large radio telescopes. Altazimuth, altitude-azimuth, or alt-az mounts allow telescopes to be moved in altitude, or azimuth and this meant until recently it was normally used with inexpensive commercial and hobby constructions. Since the invention of digital tracking systems, altazimuth mounts have come to be used in all modern large research telescopes. Digital tracking has also made it a popular telescope mount used in amateur astronomy, besides the mechanical inability to easily follow celestial motion the altazimuth mount does have other limitations. The mount also has blind spot or zenith hole, a spot near the zenith where the rate in the azimuth coordinate becomes too high to accurately follow equatorial motion. These mounts also require a third axis to de-rotate the field as the telescope tracks, alt-alt mounts, or altitude-altitude mounts, are designs similar to horizontal equatorial yoke mounts or Cardan suspension gimbals. This mount is an alternative to the mount that has the advantage of not having a blind spot near the zenith. It has the disadvantage of having all the mass, complexity and these mounts may include a third azimuth axis to rotate the entire mount into an orientation that allows smoother tracking. Slewing or mechanically driving the mounts polar axis in a direction to the Earths rotation allows the telescope to accurately follow the motion of the night sky. Tilting the polar axis adds a level of complexity to the mount, mechanical systems have to be engineered to support one or both ends of this axis. Designs such as German equatorial or cross axis mounts also need large counter weights to counterbalance the mass of the telescope, larger domes and other structures are also needed to cover the increased mechanical size and range of movement of equatorial mounts. Because of this, equatorial mounts become less viable in very large telescopes and have been pretty much replaced by altazimuth mounts for those applications, instead of the classical mounting using two axles, the mirror is supported by six extendable struts. This configuration allows moving the telescope in all six degrees of freedom
