... Image Quality of the VLT . Total Optical Control . First light for the ESO VLT unit telescope 1 occurred during the workshop. ... The image shown (Figure 1 ) here was obtained with the VLT on May 16, 1998, in red light (R band), i.e. while the mirror was still uncoated. ... In this diagram (FIgure 2), the measured image quality of the VLT UT1 astronomical images is plotted versus the ``seeing", as measured by the Seeing Monitor, a small telescope also located on top of the Paranal Mountain. ...

FGS Instrument Handbook for Cycle 24 . ... Fine Guidance Sensor Instrument Handbook for Cycle 24 > Chapter 2: FGS Instrument Design > 2.1 The Optical Train . ... Light from the HST Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) is intercepted by a plane pickoff mirror in front of the HST focal plane and directed into the FGS. The beam is collimated and compressed (by a factor of ~60) by an aspheric collimating mirror, and guided to the optical elements of the Star Selector A (SSA) servo assembly. ...

... ESO is building what will be the World's largest optical telescope array, The Very Large Telescope (VLT). The VLT Project organisation is responsible for the design and construction of the Unit Telescopes, including enclosures, optics, adapter-rotators and coating unit. ... Unit Telescopes Overview - This page is outdated, an update is in process. ... Secondary mirror (M2 Unit) - This page is outdated, an update is in process. ... Coating Unit - This page is outdated, an update is in process. ...

... Tonight's Sky . ... Observing . ... Astronomy for Kids . ... Observing springtime deep-sky objects with a large telescope . ... How do light pollution filters work? Do they actually help? ... Light pollution reduction (LPR) filters work because many outdoor lighting sources do not shine evenly across the visible spectrum. ... Get instant access to subscriber content on Astronomy.com! ... Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. ...

... Telescopes . LX850 Series . ... Superb optical performance coupled with time proven computerized pointing and tracking has made the LX200 ACF series a best-seller in the high-performance telescope class. ... Meade's revolutionary LS LightSwitchтДв series of telescopes use advanced technologies to do what no other consumer telescopes have done before: take all the hassle out of using a telescope. ... Light Shroud for 12" Meade LightBridge Dobsonian . ... Shroud for 12" Meade LightBridge Dobsonian. ...

Princeton Instruments was incorporated in 1981 and has been building low light systems for its entire history. ... Princeton Instruments uses the latest in computer aided design to engineer the highest performance camera systems possible. ... We work with every major manufacturer of CCD arrays and image intensifiers in the world. ... From early in the company history, Princeton Instruments has offered complete detection systems for many different types of applications. ... Princeton Instruments, Inc. ...

Villains and Heroes of Lights and Lighting Fixtures . If we are to reduce the effects of light pollution, we must learn about the types, both good and bad, of fixtures used in outdoor lighting. ... In fact, this type of fixture is often chosen for this very reason. ... Although these lamps are not very energy efficient, and they are often found in older, inefficient fixtures that enhance light pollution, they still exist in great abundance in most locations and are still sold by the millions. ...

... A survey of Armagh was to be carried out in order to better determine how much money is wasted each year in Armagh on bad lighting. ... Bad Up Light . ... This information allowed more accurate estimates to be made of how much light is wasted in Armagh, and therefore how much money and coal is wasted, as well as how much carbon dioxide produced. ... Lights per metre . ... denote the average percentage of light wasted per luminaire, wasted meaning ineffective lighting (up, to the sides etc.) . ...

... BOM2 and the basic block of solar limbograph including pointing and control systems ? ... Fine tracking platform (FTP) for Sun tracking by the sight axis of the limbograph; . ... Tracking system frequency ? ... Controller of the control system and solar fine tracking of the sight axis of the limbograph; . ... The basic relative construction of the elements and instrumental blocks of the "Astrometria" space experiment is shown on the block diagram of units within the complex of SL-200 solar...

... Plate bending . ... The plug-plates of SDSS project are responsible for locating the optical-fiber plugs spatially and for defining the plug tilt with respect to the surface of best focus. ... It can be seen from the graphs that after bending the plate and adding a central suport, the curvature of the plate was quite near that of the desired Kent005 curve. ... Upon adding a central support, however, the slope of the plate decreases to a value slightly less than that of the Kent005 curve. ...

... Solar Wind . ... During a total eclipse of the Sun, when for a few minutes the Moon completely covers the Sun's face, a glow appears around the darkened Sun--the solar corona, the Sun's outermost atmosphere. ... Such high levels of ionization require the atoms to be buffeted around by extremely high temperatures, around 1,000,000 C (1,800,000 F). ... It is brightest near sunspots, whose arched field lines apparently hamper the outflow of solar wind which carries away energy and helps cool the corona...

... Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey Collaboration Explanation: The graceful spiral galaxy NGC 6070, 100 million light-years distant in the constellation Serpens , is helping astronomers celebrate "First Light" (the first test sky images ) for an exciting new telescope built to perform the ambitious Sloan Digital Sky Survey . ... Publications with keywords: spiral galaxy - NGC 6070 - sloan sky survey . Publications with words: spiral galaxy - NGC 6070 - sloan sky survey . ... Bright Galaxy NGC 2903 . ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Our Galaxy . ... Other Galaxies . ... Space Flight . ... When Galaxies Collide (Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope) . In the southern sky constellation of Corvus (the Crow), we see the Antennae Galaxies (alias NGC 4038 and 4039). ... Your email address will not be published. ... Here you will find the latest news and views from the fascinating worlds of astronomy and space exploration. ...

... Iowa Robotic Telescope | ... Talon is based on OCAAS, a software suite developed by software engineer Elwood Downey ( Clear Sky Institute ) for use at the University of Iowa ?s first remote facility (the ATF, or Automated Telescope Facility). ... XObservatory : Telescope Control Interface . ... This program calls upon and coordinates much of the interrelated portions of the Talon architecture, and forms the primary control panel for the telescope, dome, and peripheral systems when used locally. ...

Next: The ESO VLT CCD Detectors Software . ... Up: Instrument-Specific Software . ... The framework for data calibration and analysis of the VLT instrumentation is presented, based on the concepts of a calibration plan, pipeline calibration, quality control, and archiving of calibrated data for a ground-based observatory. ... Quality Control Pipeline provides quality assessment for instrument performance data and observing conditions, and tests the results of the Reduction Pipeline. ...

... Listed below are questions submitted by users of "The Exploration of the Earth's Magnetosphere" and the answers given to them. ... The ones included below are either of the sort that keeps coming up again and again--the danger of solar eruptions, the reversal of the Earth's magnetic field, etc.-- or else the answers make a special point, going into extra details which might interest other users. ... Radiation Belts and Manned Space Flight . ... Capturing the Energy of the Solar Wind . ...

... Bad Astronomy . Misconceptions . ... Bad Astronomy : "We're light years more advanced than our competition!" ... Even the closest astronomical object, the Moon, is 400,000 kilometers away! ... A beam of light will travel 9,500,000,000,000 kilometers in one year. This distance is defined as a light year ; the distance light travels in a year. ... This is another example of Bad Astronomy; like a light year, a parsec is a unit of distance, not time (to be specific, it equals 3.26 light years) . ...

... The MROI makes use of optical interferometry, much like COAST . ... As a major collaborator, the Cambridge Astrophysics Group is currently developing some of the mechanisms below, specifically the delay line and the fast tip-tilt system. ... Fringe tracking is used to control the positions of the delay line trolleys to make sure the light beams from the different telescopes in the MROI arrive at the science camera beam combiners in phase so that an interference pattern can be produced. ...

... STScI-PRC96-25 HUBBLE'S 100,000TH EXPOSURE CAPTURES IMAGE OF DISTANT QUASAR The Hubble Space Telescope achieved its 100,000th exposure June 22 with a snapshot of a quasar that is about 9 billion light-years from Earth. ... The fainter object just above it is an elliptical galaxy. ... The quasar and star are separated by billions of light-years. ... Image files in GIF and JPEG format and captions may be accessed on Internet via anonymous ftp from ftp.stsci.edu in /pubinfo. ...

Guest Editorial , July 2006 . Past ? Present ? Future . ... SETI, the quest for reasonable signals from Space, is aimed at the Past. ... From here on Earth, we can say with good reason that conducting both searches (SETI) and transmission (METI) of reasonable signals, we appear poised just halfway between the Past and the Future: namely, in the Present! ... This editorial was submitted in response to Their Past, Our Future , by SETI League executive director emeritus H. Paul Shuch. ...