|
Boyden Observatory
Boyden Observatory is an astronomical research observatory and science education centre located in Maselspoort, north-east of the city of Bloemfontein in Free State, South Africa. The observatory is managed by the Physics Department of the University of the Free State (UFS). The Friends of Boyden assist the observatory as a public support group, organising open evenings and protecting its public interest. Boyden also makes use of members of ASSA Bloemfontein Centre, the amateur astronomy club of the city, for presenters and telescope assistants. History The Boyden Station of Harvard Observatory was founded in 1889 by Harvard University at Mount Harvard near Lima, Peru. It was relocated to Arequipa, Peru in October 1890 ( obs. code: 800). It was named after Uriah A. Boyden, who in 1879 left in his will $238,000 to Harvard Observatory to be used for astronomical purposes. Significant work done at Arequipa include the discovery of Phoebe, an outer moon of Saturn, by Wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of The Free State
The University of the Free State (; Sotho language, Sesotho: ''Yunivesithi ya Freistata'') is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State (province), Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary section of Grey College, Bloemfontein, Grey College. It was declared an independent Afrikaans-language university in 1950 and the name was changed to the University of the Orange Free State. The university has two satellite campuses. Initially a whites-only precinct, the university was fully de-segregated in 1996. The first black university vice-chancellor was appointed in 2010. History The long-held dream of an institution of higher education in the Free State became a reality in 1904 when the Grey College, Bloemfontein, Grey College first accepted matriculants for a full B.A. course. In 1906 the tertiary part of Grey College became known as the Grey University ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Henry Pickering
William Henry Pickering (February 15, 1858 – January 16, 1938) was an American astronomer. Pickering constructed and established several observatories or astronomical observation stations, notably including Percival Lowell's Flagstaff Observatory. He spent much of the later part of his life at his private observatory in Jamaica. Early life William Pickering was born on February 15, 1858, in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were Charlotte (née Hammond) and Edward Pickering. His older brother was Edward Charles Pickering, director of the Harvard College Observatory from 1876 to 1920. He attended secondary schools in Boston and Cambridge. In 1878, he published his observations of the coronal polarization of the 1878 solar eclipse in Colorado. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a bachelor in science in 1879. Career Pickering was an instructor in physics at MIT from 1880 to 1887. As early as 1882, pioneered in celestial photography. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Telescope
A solar telescope or a solar observatory is a special-purpose telescope used to observe the Sun. Solar telescopes usually detect light with wavelengths in, or not far outside, the visible spectrum. Obsolete names for Sun telescopes include heliograph and photoheliograph. Professional Solar telescopes need optics large enough to achieve the best possible Diffraction#Diffraction limit of telescopes, diffraction limit but less so for the associated light-collecting power of other astronomical telescopes. However, recently newer narrower Optical filter, filters and higher framerates have also driven solar telescopes towards photon-starved operations. Both the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope as well as the proposed European Solar Telescope (EST) have larger apertures not only to increase the resolution, but also to increase the light-collecting power. Because solar telescopes operate during the day, seeing is generally worse than for night-time telescopes, because the ground around ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Wilson Observatory
The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an Observatory#Astronomical observatories, astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson (California), Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, California, Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles. The observatory contains two historically important telescopes: the #100-inch Hooker telescope, Hooker telescope, which was the largest aperture telescope in the world from its completion in 1917 to 1949, and the #60-inch telescope, 60-inch telescope which was the largest operational telescope in the world when it was completed in 1908. It also contains the Snow solar telescope completed in 1905, the solar tower completed in 1908, the solar tower completed in 1912, and the CHARA array, built by Georgia State University, which became fully operational in 2004 and was the largest optical interferometer in the world at its completion. Due to the inversion (meteorol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alvan Clark
Alvan Clark (March 8, 1804 – August 19, 1887) was an American astronomer and telescope maker. Biography Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Clark started as a portrait painter and engraver (c.1830s–1850s), and at the age of 40 became involved in telescope making. Using glass blanks made by Chance Brothers of Birmingham, England, and Feil-Mantois of Paris, France, his firm Alvan Clark & Sons ground lenses for refracting telescopes. Their lenses included the largest in the world at the time: the at Dearborn Observatory at the Old University of Chicago (the lens originally intended for Ole Miss); also the two telescopes at the United States Naval Observatory and McCormick Observatory, the at Pulkovo Observatory, which was destroyed in the Siege of Leningrad (only the lens survives), the telescope at Lick Observatory (still the third-largest), and later the at Yerkes Observatory, which remains the largest successful refracting telescope in the world. Although not speci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Refractor
A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and astronomical telescopes but is also used for long-focus camera lenses. Although large refracting telescopes were very popular in the second half of the 19th century, for most research purposes, the refracting telescope has been superseded by the reflecting telescope, which allows larger apertures. A refractor's magnification is calculated by dividing the focal length of the objective lens by that of the eyepiece. Refracting telescopes typically have a lens at the front, then a long tube, then an eyepiece or instrumentation at the rear, where the telescope view comes to focus. Originally, telescopes had an objective of one element, but a century later, two and even three element lenses were made. Refracting telescopes use technology tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nagoya University
, abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It was established in 1939 as the last of the nine Imperial Universities in the then Empire of Japan, and is now a Designated National University. The university is the birthplace of the Sakata School of physics and the Hirata School of chemistry. As of 2021, seven Nobel Prize winners have been associated with Nagoya University, the third most in Japan and Asia behind Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo. History Nagoya Imperial University was established as the last of the Imperial Universities in 1939 and was later renamed Nagoya University in 1947. Although relatively new as a university, it can trace its roots back to a Temporary Medical School/Public Hospital opened in 1871. Renowned for its contributions in physics and chemistry, the university has been the birthplace of notable scientific advancements such as the Sakata model, the PMNS matrix, the Okazak ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reflecting Telescope
A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternative to the refracting telescope which, at that time, was a design that suffered from severe chromatic aberration. Although reflecting telescopes produce other types of optical aberrations, it is a design that allows for very large diameter Objective (optics), objectives. Almost all of the major telescopes used in astronomy research are reflectors. Many variant forms are in use and some employ extra optical elements to improve image quality or place the image in a mechanically advantageous position. Since reflecting telescopes use mirrors, the design is sometimes referred to as a catoptrics, catoptric telescope. From the time of Newton to the 1800s, the mirror itself was made of metalusually speculum metal. This type included Newton's first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamma-ray Burst
In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events occurring in distant Galaxy, galaxies which represent the brightest and most powerful class of explosion in the universe. These extreme Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic emissions are second only to the Big Bang as the most energetic and luminous phenomenon ever known. Gamma-ray bursts can last from a few milliseconds to several hours. After the initial flash of gamma rays, a longer-lived afterglow is emitted, usually in the longer wavelengths of X-ray, ultraviolet, visible spectrum, optical, infrared, microwave or radio waves, radio frequencies. The intense radiation of most observed GRBs is thought to be released during a supernova or superluminous supernova as a high-mass star implodes to form a neutron star or a black hole. Short-duration (sGRB) events are a subclass of GRB signals that are now known to originate from the cataclysmic Neutron star merger, merger of binary neutron stars. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University College Dublin
University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest university. UCD originates in a body founded in 1854, which opened as the Catholic University of Ireland on the feast of Saint Malachy, St. Malachy with John Henry Newman as its first rector; it re-formed in 1880 and chartered in its own right in 1908. The Universities Act, 1997 renamed the constituent university as the "National University of Ireland, Dublin", and a ministerial order of 1998 renamed the institution as "University College Dublin – National University of Ireland, Dublin". Originally located at St Stephen's Green and National Concert Hall, Earlsfort terrace in Dublin's city centre, all faculties later relocated to a campus at Belfield, Dublin, Belfield, six kilometres to the south of the city centre. In 1991, it purchas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robotic Telescope
A robotic telescope is an astronomical telescope and detector system that makes observations without the intervention of a human. In astronomical disciplines, a telescope qualifies as robotic if it makes those observations without being operated by a human, even if a human has to initiate the observations at the beginning of the night or end them in the morning. It may have software agents using artificial intelligence that assist in various ways such as automatic scheduling. A robotic telescope is distinct from a remote telescope, though an instrument can be both robotic and remote. By 2004, robotic observations accounted for an overwhelming percentage of the published scientific information on asteroid orbits and discoveries, variable star studies, supernova light curves and discoveries, comet orbits and gravitational microlensing observations. All early phase gamma ray burst observations were carried by robotic telescopes. Design Robotic telescopes are complex systems tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
F-number
An f-number is a measure of the light-gathering ability of an optical system such as a camera lens. It is calculated by dividing the system's focal length by the diameter of the entrance pupil ("clear aperture").Smith, Warren ''Modern Optical Engineering'', 4th Ed., 2007 McGraw-Hill Professional, p. 183. The f-number is also known as the focal ratio, f-ratio, or f-stop, and it is key in determining the depth of field, diffraction, and Exposure (photography), exposure of a photograph. The f-number is dimensionless number, dimensionless and is usually expressed using a lower-case Ƒ, hooked f with the format ''N'', where ''N'' is the f-number. The f-number is also known as the inverse relative aperture, because it is the Multiplicative inverse, inverse of the relative aperture, defined as the aperture diameter divided by focal length. The relative aperture indicates how much light can pass through the lens at a given focal length. A lower f-number means a larger relative apertur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
