For Further Exploration: Astronomical Instruments

Articles

Blades, J. C. “Fixing the Hubble One Last Time.” Sky & Telescope (October 2008): 26. On the last Shuttle service mission and what the Hubble was then capable of doing.

Brown, A. “How Gaia will Map a Billion Stars.” Astronomy (December 2014): 32. Nice review of the mission to do photometry and spectroscopy of all stars above a certain brightness.

Irion, R. “Prime Time.” Astronomy (February 2001): 46. On how time is allotted on the major research telescopes.

Jedicke, Peter & Robert. “The Coming Giant Sky Patrols.” Sky & Telescope (September 2008): 30. About giant telescopes to survey the sky continuously.

Lazio, Joseph, et al. “Tuning in to the Universe: 21st Century Radio Astronomy.” Sky & Telescope (July 2008): 21. About ALMA and the Square Kilometer Array.

Lowe, Jonathan. “Mirror, Mirror.” Sky & Telescope (December 2007): 22. On the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona.

Lowe, Jonathan. “Next Light: Tomorrow’s Monster Telescopes.” Sky & Telescope (April 2008): 20. About plans for extremely large telescopes on the ground.

Mason, Todd & Robin. “Palomar’s Big Eye.” Sky & Telescope (December 2008): 36. On the Hale 200-inch telescope.

Subinsky, Raymond. “Who Really Invented the Telescope.” Astronomy (August 2008): 84. Brief historical introduction, focusing on Hans Lippershey.

Websites

Websites for major telescopes are given in Table 1 in Telescopes Today, Table 1 in Radio Telescopes, and Table 1 in Observations outside Earth’s Atmosphere.

Videos

Astronomy from the Stratosphere: SOFIA: A talk by Dr. Dana Backman (1:15:32)

Galaxies Viewed in Full Spectrum of Light: Scientists with the Spitzer Observatory show how a galaxy looks different at different wavelengths (6:22)

Lifting the Cosmic Veil: Highlights from a Decade of the Spitzer Space Telescope: A talk by Dr. Michael Bicay (1:42:44)