ASTR 1150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Adaptive Optics, Radio Astronomy, James Webb Space Telescope
Document Summary
Astr 1150 - lecture 3: studying the sky. There are two predominant types of radiation that pass through the atmosphere and reach the earth"s surface: visible (optical) and radio. There is a wide range of incoming of incoming radiation striking the earth. Each type of radiation has its own range of wavelengths. Most of the types of radiation are blocked by the earth"s atmosphere. Lenses and mirrors are used to construct telescopes. Hard to built due to weight of a huge glass lense, needing a long and structurally stable body. Research telescopes built today are constructed using mirrors. Multi-segmented mirros, keck telescope, giant magellan telescopes. Data used to be collected on large photographic plates. Glass-backed plates with a light sensitive emulsion on the surface. Research telescopes built today use ccds as detectors. Ccds or charged-coupled devices collect light and convert it to a digital signal. Photons (small particles of light) cause a ccd pixel to build up an electrical charge.
