It's one big bad scope...
Posted on 02/27/2011 11:49:15 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Thanks for the info...could you explain what “adaptive optics” are..briefly..also, what about the threat posed by vulcanism? Are there any other potential sites?
It is also cold and potentially snowy - Mauna Kea meaning "White Lady" reflects that status. Back in January, we had a day in which 49 of the 50 United States had snow on the ground - poor Florida was really feeling left out [NOT!]
Thanks for the info...Hawaii ( the whole chain) is a volcanic hot spot..and there are other active sites..no other place to build a scope?
Ideally, the shape of your telescope’s main reflector should be a paraboloid, and for centuries they were (with much work put into grinding your mirror into that perfect shape). With adaptive optics the shape of the reflector is adjusted to correct for atmospheric abnormalities. Quite literally there’s an actuator attached to each mirror segment which moves that segment up or down - whatever’s needed to fix the image. Of course, before the computer revolution none of this would have been possible; but with modern computers the whole process can be automated and carried out in real time.
Not with as many clear days, steady air/atmosphere and distance away from air/light pollution...Hawaii is an excellent location for optical telescopes. The telescope will be built by the University of California, the California Institute of Technology and they’ve done considerable research in regards to location of the instrument.
It's one big bad scope...
Peru maybe. There already are a lot of observatories on Mauna Kea, and the road and infrastructure in place. In the United States, I can't think of very many places at 13,000 ft which are not already protected in as a wilderness or national park. There are only a couple of peaks this high on private land, and they would not have the infrastructure to handle this.
The big island is moving off the hot spot, and the volcano is currently about 30 miles away at the south east side of the island, even into the water, where it is busy pushing up the next Hawaiian island. While an eruption can spread ash up to the observatory, it certainly hasn't stopped others from building there.
“Mauna Kea is a great place for telescopes... but at 13,796 feet, it’s a lousy place to breathe. :) “
LOL. A lot like Pikes Peak, where I’ve been once.
Two answers here and I will start with the latter question about other places.
Great Telescope sites need two things, height to minimize the amount of atmospheric distortion and ambient darkness, a rapidly diminishing resource. While there are a great many telescopes around the world, the 2 great sites are Hawaii and the Altacama sites in Northern Chile. Each of these have both of the above attributes and each is in a different hemisphere so that both the North and South skies can be observed. Two other popular sites are the Spanish Canary Islands and the Kitt's Peak area of Arizona.
As for the Hawaiian Hot Spot, it is actually traveling away from Mauna Kea [very slowly]. If you look at the sea floor, you can see how this has traveled over the eons to where it is today from an 'start?' somewhere around the Aleutian Islands some 70 million years ago. There is speculation as to whether it is the crust moving over a stationary 'Hot Spot' or a combination of spot and crust movement. Anyway the newest Hawaiian volcano is the Loihi seamount that is expected to surface sometime in the next 10k years at the south-east flank of Mauna Loa (22 miles off of Big Island). So, if the trend is your friend, then maybe there are no worries, right?
Re the Canary Islands...that's one I'd question..supposedly it consists of extinct volcaoes..but the whole island could collapse into the ocean..and incidently triggering a massive tsunami which would wipe out the east coast of the US..
Thanks..I’d never heard of it before...
If they ask for Federal funding, I’d say no.
It would be better, if ANY Federal funds are asked for ANY optical telescope project, to instead spend as needed to move the Hubble to a moon orbit or even a land base on the moon.
First, here's the summit altar, in which you can see the angry zits from my earlier photo upthread, as well as the USGS summit marker pipe sticking up out of the ground to the left of the altar. The altar had several offerings. Bananas, ribbons, medallions, photographs, cash money, etc... an interestingly diverse collection.
Here's a closeup of the summit marker.
And lastly, a funny story. I've always been into hiking and climbing, and the technology that goes with it, and when I'm on a good hike I like to wear my trusty old Casio Triple Sensor watch, which has an air pressure driven altimeter. I've had it for about 20 years, and it still runs like a champ. Well... when I was headed on a trip up Mauna Kea I was really excited about taking a photo of my watch registering just a hair under 14,000 feet.
There I was at the summit, and when I looked at my watch, to my horror it didn't show our elevation, but had some kind of error message. I thought I had broken it. I was extremely disappointed. Then as we descended it suddenly started working again... and I took this shot from 12,960 feet.
Then after I got home I looked at the owner's manual, only to discover that the altimeter in a Casio Triple Sensor watch only goes up to 13,000 feet. What a relief!!! :) So I didn't get my 13,800 foot money shot of the watch... I was pretty close.
One last thing... hiking on top of Mauna Kea is a real tough time. The air is just too thin. We were sucking wind pretty bad, and had headaches which didn't go away until after an awesome banana and macadamia nut pancake breakfast the next morning. :)
30 meters!!! 30! OMG, remember the 200-inch Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar? It was the world’s largest for my entire life, the epitome of large earth-bound telescopes, never to be exceeded in size, now practically a hobby scope, lol. Can’t wait to see what they find with this one!
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