Better camera than Hubble?

Better camera than Hubble?

Author
Discussion

dkatwa

Original Poster:

570 posts

245 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
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RobDickinson said:
Thats not one image, its many stitched together to form a gigapixel panoramic.

Absolute resolution is down to focal length (field of view) number of frames stitched, overlap, resolution of the sensor, quality of the optics yada yada.

But typically a normal camera filters out much IR and UV that hubble would need to see, then it would likely get fried in space and stop working entirely.

The tech in hubble is quite old, and its near end of life, a new telescope is going up soon and is far more advanced, but still years of planning and building means it wont be cutting edge when we launch it. despite the billions of dollars...
What is the new telescope called?
Also since there is no shuttle now, if technology advanced sufficiently, would it be cheaper to send a new telescope to space instead of, somehow, trying to upgrade this new telescope that will launch soon?

Eric Mc

122,029 posts

265 months

Wednesday 7th December 2016
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The "new" telescope (it's been in the works for 30 odd years) is the James Webb Telescope.

It will a very different type of animal to Hubble and will be positioned over 1 million miles from earth (unlike Hubble, which was in low earth orbit).



The James Webb is too far away for manned servicing flights and is not designed for mid life updates. So, what gets launched in a year or so will be it.

Toaster

2,939 posts

193 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
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Eric Mc said:
Exactly. They could have put the most super duper camera in the world on Hubble but it would have been no good without the corrective optics provided by COSTAR.

Over the decades Hubble has been operating, it received numerous uogrades and improvements to boost its performance.
Hmm now let me see if you use an optical camera Mirrors and optics often feature quite large in these devices or they won't work so my guess by stating it was the corrective optics not the camera isn't quite correct they are all part of the system to take a picture.

Eric Mc

122,029 posts

265 months

Thursday 8th December 2016
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You would, wouldn't you.

Is your mission to just quote me so you can disagree with me?


How sad. You obviously have a brain. Why not use it to be constructive rather than disagreeable.

I honestly think you could do with some help. There is a strange pattern to your behaviour on this forum which does indicate a kind of psychosis.

red rider

208 posts

192 months

Saturday 21st January 2017
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Not sure if this has been covered before but why doesn't the Hubble space telescope take close up photos of mars or any other of the planets or does it already?

Eric Mc

122,029 posts

265 months

Saturday 21st January 2017
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How close up do you want?

Mars



Jupiter



Hubble is not optimised for planetary observations. It's main purpose is to image very faint objects - such as very distant stars and galaxies.

Halmyre

11,194 posts

139 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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Eric Mc said:
How close up do you want?

Mars

Those black dots look awfully like interplanetary gun launch sites...

Eric Mc

122,029 posts

265 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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They've also cleverly disguised all those canals.

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

261 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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It is rumoured there is another Hubble, owned by the USAF or CIA and pointed downwards. Not sure how they cope with atmospheric problems though.

Eric Mc

122,029 posts

265 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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The optics of Hubble are based on those used in 1970s era Keyhole spy satellites. The mirror and lenses were made by Perkin-Elmer - who did the same on the spy satellites.

Toaster

2,939 posts

193 months

Wednesday 25th January 2017
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That great British firm E2v also contributes to Hubble with its WFC3 this was installed on Hubble during Nasa's STS-125 flight