Category Archives: Instruments

includes telescopes and space probes

Blog 2: Celestial Navigation

Posted on February 15, 2017 by mchastr2110

Even though astronomers use scales such as arcseconds and arcminutes to measure certain distances between stars, the main tool of celestial navigation, the sextant, is only able to measure arcminutes. The sextant uses reflection in order to find the angle of celestial objects. Traditionally, the sextant has two mirrors. The horizon mirror is stationary and … Continue reading Blog 2: Celestial Navigation Continue reading →

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Rogue Radio Burst Leads to Discovery of Billion-Year-Old Galaxy

Posted on February 14, 2017 by njelinek425

The detection of fast radio bursts, one of the universe’s most mysterious and rare occurrences, took place in early January of this year when signals from a dwarf galaxy over 2.5 billion light years away were first recorded. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are an incredibly rare phenomenon usually occurring in a millisecond or so, each […] Continue reading →

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The Invention of the Telescope

Posted on February 14, 2017 by pkunetz97

Galileo was the first astronomer to use a telescope to observe the moon, the phases of Venus, and the largest four moons of Jupiter. In fact, Galileo was the first astronomer to use a telescope for anything because he was the dude who invented it. He first heard about a dutch inventor who put curved […] Continue reading →

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A bit on Technology

Posted on February 14, 2017 by joneastr

Since I’m in the School of Engineering and the topics for this blog are a little more open ended, I … More Continue reading →

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The Importance of Spectroscopy in Solar System Exploration

Posted on February 14, 2017 by njelinek425

While the very existence of visible light allows for the viewing of celestial bodies, not enough credit is oft given to the true capability of light’s full spectrum. Spectroscopy is an imaging and scientific method of measurement that involves the unique spectra that occur when light comes into contact with an object or substance of […] Continue reading →

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IR and Telescopes

Posted on February 14, 2017 by joneastr

I previous wrote about how the “oldest” and farthest galaxies and stars from us are also moving the fastest away … More Continue reading →

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James Webb Space Telescope

Posted on February 14, 2017 by astr2110tmcm

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the long awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope from which we have received numerous wonderful and famous images of far away stars, galaxies, and other celestial bodies. As the successor to the Hubble, there are, of course, some improvements over the Hubble that are being made with […] Continue reading →

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Blog #2

Posted on February 14, 2017 by niharikadar

For most contemporary scholars, the modern telescope owes its existence to Enlightenment thinkers who crafted the device to enhance their own stargazing endeavors. However, observing the night sky is hardly a practice that has been limited to the past few hundred years.  Thus, it seems likely that there may have been telescopic structures created much … Continue reading Blog #2 Continue reading →

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Blog #1

Posted on February 14, 2017 by niharikadar

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Something about the night sky has fascinated people for centuries. Even in early civilizations, people have demonstrated keen interest in both watching the sky and making observations about the phenomena they observed. Despite its long history, astronomy has evolved over time to reflect new technologies available for observation … Continue reading Blog #1 Continue reading →

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Blog #1

Posted on February 14, 2017 by niharikadar

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. Something about the night sky has fascinated people for centuries. Even in early civilizations, people have demonstrated keen interest in both watching the sky and making observations about the phenomena they observed. Despite its long history, astronomy has evolved over time to reflect new technologies available for observation … Continue reading Blog #1 Continue reading →

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