- 4480 - DAYTIME TELESCOPES - really? - Stargazing in broad daylight using a multi-lens telescope will change how we do astronomy? Astronomers at Macquarie University have pioneered a new technique for observing celestial objects during the day, potentially allowing around-the-clock astronomy.
--------------------------------------- 4480
- DAYTIME TELESCOPES
- really?
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- Astronomers are using the University's
“Huntsman Telescope” which is a unique array of 10 camera lenses working in
parallel, originally designed for ultra-sensitive night sky observations.
Huntsman has the ability to accurately measure stars, satellites and other
targets when the sun is high overhead, despite astronomers traditionally only
observing at night.
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- People have tried observing stars and
satellites in optical wavelengths during the day for centuries, but it has been
very difficult to do. Our tests show the Huntsman can achieve remarkable
results in daylight hours.
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- The telescope combines an astronomy camera
and astro-mechanical focusing equipment with an array of 10 highly sensitive
400mm Canon lenses, oriented to cover the same patch of sky.
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- Because the sun floods out most light from
other celestial objects, astronomers rarely observe during the day, but special
"broadband" filters on a test version of the Huntsman telescope to
block most daylight while still allowing specific wavelengths from celestial
objects to pass through.
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- The Huntsman's daytime capability allows
continual monitoring of certain bright stars that can be unobservable at night
for months at a time because they are too close to the sun. One example is the
red supergiant Betelgeuse, a nearby star around 650 light-years away in the
Orion constellation in our Milky Way galaxy.
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- Betelgeuse is of great interest to
astronomers since the star dimmed substantially from late 2019 through 2020,
likely due to a major ejection of gas and dust.
Without this daytime mode, we'd have no idea if one of the brightest
stars in the sky has gone supernova until a few months after its explosive
light reached Earth.
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- We know Betelgeuse will blow up 'soon' in
astronomical terms this means anytime between now and millions of years into
the future, but not exactly when it will happen. For about four months of the year, it's only
observable during the daytime because the sun gets between Betelgeuse and the
Earth at this time.
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- This breakthrough paves the way for
uninterrupted, long-term studies of stars like Betelgeuse as they undergo
powerful eruptions near their end of life, expelling massive amounts of stellar
material in the final stages of the cosmic cycle of rebirth.
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- Astronomers love when stars in the Milky
Way go supernova because it can tell us so much about how elements are created
in the universe. Unfortunately,
supernova in the Milky Way are relatively rare, the last time it happened was
in 1604.
-
- But when a supernova went off in a
mini-galaxy next to our Milky Way galaxy in 1987, this was so useful for
astronomers that they still observe the expanding supernova explosion almost 40
years later.
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- Mastering daytime observation also delivers
a big advantage in the rapidly expanding field of “space situational awareness”
(SSA), which is the close monitoring of an ever-growing population of
satellites, space debris and other artificial objects orbiting Earth.
More satellites will be
launched in the next 10 years than in the entire history of human space
exploration. With around 10,000 active
satellites already circulating the planet and plans to launch a further 50,000 low
Earth orbit satellites in the next decade, there's a clear need for dedicated
day and night telescope networks to continually detect and track satellites.
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- Potential satellite collisions have grave
implications for communications, GPS, weather monitoring and other critical
infrastructure. Satellite photometry, an
astronomy technique using optical telescopes to study changes in the brightness
of celestial objects, can reveal valuable information, including the
composition, age and condition of orbiting objects.
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- Opening up to daytime observation of
satellites allows us to monitor not just where they are, but also their
orientation, and adds to the information we get from radar and other monitoring
methods, protecting against potential collisions.
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- Daytime astronomy is an exciting field, and
with advances in camera sensors, filters and other technologies, we saw
dramatic improvements in the sensitivity and precision achievable under
bright-sky conditions.
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- The Huntsman has been constructed so the 10
lenses work in parallel, feeding 10 ultra-fast CMOS camera sensors that
together can take thousands of short-exposure images per second.
The attached camera can
process images and manage very large data streams in an instant, using robotic
control to track and capture fast-moving objects, and delivering continuous
24-hour monitoring of objects.
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- Daytime astronomy will be increasingly
critical as we enter the next Space Age.
-
May 22, 2024 DAYTIME
TELESCOPES - really?
4480
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--------------------- --- Saturday, May 25, 2024
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