X-Andrew-Authenticated-as: 7997;andrew.cmu.edu;Ted Anderson
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Fri, 9 Mar 90 01:42:06 -0500 (EST)
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To: space+@Andrew.CMU.EDU
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 90 01:41:37 -0500 (EST)
Subject: SPACE Digest V11 #127
SPACE Digest Volume 11 : Issue 127
Today's Topics:
Reliability, Bureaucracy, and Spaceflight Costs (long)
From: cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!uvaarpa!hudson!astsun9.astro.Virginia.EDU!gsh7w@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Greg S. Hennessy)
Subject: Re: hubble telescope power
In article <18658@megaron.cs.arizona.edu> kline@cs.arizona.edu (Nick
Kline) writes:
#The reason why I am bothering you all with this information is that in
#a discussion on the 'scopes, an astronomy graduate student (speaking
#on his own, I assume) said that ground based 'scopes, especially the
#new variety to be manufactured by the U. of Az. are, much better than
#the space based variety, and in fact are "10 to 20 times more powerful"
#than the Hubble Space Telescope.
One problem with HST is that it is rather small, only 2.5 meters in
diameter. There are many 4 meter telescopes now, with a 10 meter in
Hawaii, and many 8 meter designs being either constructed or planned.
These telescopes can collect many more photons than HST, since the
collecting area is much bigger, but HST still will have better
resolution than these telescopes, especially for extended objects.
There are observations that only HST can do. There are also
observations that ground based observatories can do better than HST.
-Greg Hennessy, University of Virginia
USPS Mail: Astronomy Department, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 USA