The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a modified Boeing 747SP, equipped with a 2.5-metre-diameter telescope.

Researchers at NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Science Center, located at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., and operated by the Universities Space Research Association, have used the space agency’s flying telescope to take the highest resolution mid-infrared image of a region of rapid, massive star formation named W40. More…

Tags: Observatory,SOFIA,Telescope
Categories: Astronomy, Science
No Comments »

ESO announce on the 26th of April the site for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The chosen site will be Cerro Armazones is a mountain at an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,060 meters) in the central part of Chile’s Atacama Desert, and about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Cerro Paranal, home of ESO’s Very Large Telescope.

The E-ELT will be 42 meters (138 feet) in diameter, which make it the biggest telescope on earth. Final approval is expected by the end of 2010 and first-light 2018. If you have seen the any of the specials on telescopes Like the one on the 200 Palomar telescope a few months back or the 2 Nova specials celebrating 400 years of the telescope. You will realize the achievement that the sucessful complete of this telescope and mirror will be. The mirror will be made up of 984 smaller segments.

Artist Concept of the Exterior

Artist Concept Telescope

Cerro Armazones, altitude of 10,000 feet

Spotted this on Astronomy.com

Tags: Astronomy,Chile,E-ELT,Telescope
Categories: Astronomy, Science, Space
No Comments »

Found this a couple of minutes ago. It is a news release about Canada’s involvement in two new astronomy missions in space.

Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory and Planck space telescope were successfully launched simultaneously at 9:12 a.m. Eastern today aboard the same Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. With funding from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), four Canadian science teams made important contributions to both satellites, considered to be two of the most ambitious missions seeking to better understand the birth of stars and the dawn of the Universe. While the Herschel and Planck satellites are two separate missions, both contribute to enhance their respective research areas in far-infrared astronomy and cosmology.

Tags: Astronomy,Canada,CSA,Satellite,Science,Space,Telescope
Categories: Astronomy, Science, Space
No Comments »

There is a great article on the SPIE website by Christoph Baranec about the about new method to improve adaptive optics using multiple laser guide stars Adaptive optics work by canceling out the effects of air turbulence.

We have shown that the MMT’s laser-GLAO system reduces the atmosphere’s blurring effects over wide fields of view, demonstrating the reduction of stellar image widths by as much as 53% in the near-IR, and uniform correction over a 110 arcsecond field of view.

Check it out it is a good read.

Tags: Astronomy,Laser,Science,Space,Telescope
Categories: Astronomy, Science
No Comments »