[Lvas] Palomar Mountain Observatory

Thu Jan 3 02:40:48 PST 2008

I hope I can find an astronomy magazine too so I can see the article that
you found in the special edition. lol

Maybe it isn't intended to, but IMHO I hope that this technology will not
impede on the development and enhancement of the future optical telescopes
to be launched into space. Though this laser AO system and
"lucky"/speckle/selective high-speed astrophotography is extremely cheap and
high resolution, it is not as capable as long-exposure, deep-space views of
an extensive interferometer system located above our atmosphere. (of course
it was probably not designed for the purpose of displacing space telescopes)

The way I interpreted (maybe wrongly?) this system portrayed in media such
as CNN makes me feel as if the public won't appreciate the wonders of the
space telescope as opposed to something much cheaper that resolves detail
somewhat better than the Hubble, without the advantage of long-exposure. I
hope the public morale in justifying the cost of the James Webb Space
Telescope will still be positive.

Nevertheless, I wish we see more of this wonderfully inventive application
of technology so we ground-based astronomers have more
extremely-high-resolution telescopes to use for research and to play with in
our arsenal. What an ingenious way of averting our turbulent atmosphere
economically to bring about such details in the binaries, planetaries, and
other objects that we study in the sky above.

Go Caltech. and the Lucky Imaging Team. Truly deserving of a place in Time
Best Inventions of the Year 2007.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1677329_1678408_1678414,00.html

Absolutely amazing what technology can do, I agree.

On Jan 3, 2008 1:38 AM, Martin Suñer Hilario <mhilario2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, I will arrive somewhat early so I can find my way around CCSN. I look
> forward to the outreach sessions that I can participate in with the members
> of the society.
>
> It would be great to meet you as well tomorrow night, and I was glad to be
> able to chip in my two cents and share my experiences with you. I hope to
> see you there.
>
> Martin H
>
>
> On Jan 2, 2008 11:04 PM, Phillip Krumpos <PhilJ1945 at cox.net> wrote:
>
> >  Yes, I was think the same thing.  Thank you for the references.  Oh,
> > will you be at the meeting tomorrow night?  I sure would like to meet you
> > and personally thank you for your guidance.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >  *From:* Martin Suñer Hilario <mhilario2 at gmail.com>
> > *To:* Las Vegas Astronomical Society <lvas at lvlug.org>
> > *Sent:* Wednesday, January 02, 2008 10:29 PM
> > *Subject:* Re: [Lvas] Palomar Mountain Observatory
> >
> > [The camera takes 20 or more shots per second.  A computer selects the
> > best images and combines them into a single, clearer view.]
> >
> > Phil, that Cambridge "Lucky Camera" looks a little bit like another
> > camera we know lol.
> >
> > http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~optics/Lucky_Web_Site/IMGP0207-sm.jpg
> > <http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/%7Eoptics/Lucky_Web_Site/IMGP0207-sm.jpg+>
> >
> > http://www.khanscope.com/images/products/1320-icon.jpg
> >
> >
> > Here is a link to Nicholas Law's postdoc about adaptive optics (ao) and
> > speckle imaging at Cambridge/Caltech/Palomar. I hope you enjoy it as well.
> >
> > POSTDOC:
> > http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~optics/Lucky_Web_Site/nlaw_lucky_thesis.pdf<http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/%7Eoptics/Lucky_Web_Site/nlaw_lucky_thesis.pdf>
> > HIS WEBPAGE: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~nlaw/<http://www.astro.caltech.edu/%7Enlaw/>
> >
> > martin
> >
> > On Jan 2, 2008 8:47 PM, Phillip Krumpos < PhilJ1945 at cox.net> wrote:
> >
> > >  In the recent special issue of "Astronomy", there was a short article
> > > about Palomar's new optics that produces visible-light images twice as sharp
> > > as those of the Hubble Space Telescope.  They have added a system that
> > > measures atmospheric distortion along the telescope's line of sight and
> > > physically deforms a mirror to counteract them.  They have coupled this
> > > system up with a new camera developed at the University of Cambridge in
> > > England.  The camera takes 20 or more shots per second.  A computer selects
> > > the best images and combines them into a single, clearer view.
> > >
> > > Wow, it is amazing what technology can do.
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Sent via the Lvas mailing list Lvas at lvlug.org
> > > Set options or unsubscribe at http://lvlug.org/mailman/listinfo/lvas
> > >
> > >
> >  ------------------------------
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sent via the Lvas mailing list Lvas at lvlug.org
> > Set options or unsubscribe at http://lvlug.org/mailman/listinfo/lvas
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sent via the Lvas mailing list Lvas at lvlug.org
> > Set options or unsubscribe at http://lvlug.org/mailman/listinfo/lvas
> >
> >
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lvlug.org/pipermail/lvas/attachments/20080103/86cbadcc/attachment.htm 