Telescope -- Engadget

telescope posts

VisionCare's implantable telescope will make you bionic, hopefully won't cost six million dollars

by Tim Stevens posted Apr 3rd 2009 at 8:39AM

The idea of a telescope fused directly into your eye may sound like a dream come true for impromptu stargazers, but the intent here is not for ocular astronomy. Rather it's to help those suffering from age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. This condition results in the deterioration of eyesight (much like the deterioration of cashflow in the other AMD), creating a large blind spot in the center of the field of vision. VisionCare's 4mm implantable telescope is intended to re-focus an image onto an undamaged part of the retina of one eye using either 2.2 or 3X magnification, giving patients the ability see directly ahead while leaving the other as it was to provide peripheral vision. It's a rather more simple solution than others we've seen, which is perhaps why it's already completed a Phase II/III clinical trial, and the FDA is recommending it be approved for use. We are too, if only so that we'll have more opportunities to use that Six Million Dollar Man soundboard we keep bookmarked -- that bionic jump never gets old.

[Via Medgadget]

ENESS Humble Telescope brings space to you, your ego down a notch

by Darren Murph posted Mar 31st 2009 at 7:32AM

Think the world is your oyster? Think you've got it all figured out? Think again, bub. ENESS' appropriately named Humble Telescope is an interactive installation that presents a 3D simulation of our entire known universe to anyone who dares peer in. Viewers simply point the "telescope" in any direction, and instantaneously they're presented with what exists in that specific area of space. The sheer magnitude of it coupled with the views from beyond seek to remind us of just how small we are in the grand scheme of things, and quite honestly, we're tearing up just thinking about it. Grab a tissue and head past the break for a life-changing video.

[Via OhGizmo]

Continue reading ENESS Humble Telescope brings space to you, your ego down a notch

NASA's Kepler spacecraft ready to begin searching for other, cooler "earths"

by Laura June posted Mar 6th 2009 at 3:50AM

NASA's just declared its Kepler spacecraft "ready to launch." In case you're not already in the know on this one, the Kepler's mission will be to jaunt out into space, then watch a massive patch of it for 3.5 years to see if there are any signs of habitable planets similar to Earth. The craft will be looking mostly for planets that revolve around stars similar to the Sun, and it will be able to watch about 100,000 of them continuously, unlike the beleaguered but awesome Hubble telescope. The Kepler has a 0.95-meter diameter telescope, and the project has been in the works for about 25 years. It will finally launch tonight, on a Delta 2 rocket. Check out a few images of the Kepler after the break, hit up NASA's Kepler site for the full details of the mission.

[Thanks, Matthew]

Continue reading NASA's Kepler spacecraft ready to begin searching for other, cooler "earths"

WiFi-enabled Crestron touchpanel aids in stargazing

by Darren Murph posted Oct 1st 2008 at 11:25AM

We've seen home automation touchpanels used for some -- shall we say, unorthodox -- activities, but this is taking things to another ~~level~~ galaxy. Franklin, NC-based Dan Quigley has whipped up a way for his WiFi-enabled Crestron TMPC8X to actually control a giant telescope. Rather than manually getting the 'scope into the right position, he simply touches a button and watches it automatically check to see "if and when that object is viewable." While he's at it, he can dim the lights around him and check the local weather, and once a celestial body is in view, he can snap a photograph or have the system channel the image to any computer / TV. Suddenly, astronomy has become entirely more attractive.

[Thanks, Chuck]

Brando Telescope makes iPhone 3G photos 6x worse

by Thomas Ricker posted Aug 18th 2008 at 6:35AM

We've seen these zoom lens add-ons before. Now Brando's slapped together this 6x "Telescope" for the iPhone 3G -- a phone not exactly revered for its image quality. Just snap the unit to the back of the iPhone 3G and get to work. How good is it? About as bad as the $19 worth of optics within. Seriously, 19 bucks and available now.

Save Arecibo: because aliens don't do voicemail

by Paul Miller posted Jul 7th 2008 at 11:25AM

The folks at SETI@home have put out a desperate plea for the community to bust out those quill pens and start writing strongly-worded letters to congress persons. Apparently the Arecibo Observatory, the world's largest radio telescope and SETI@home's data source, is being threatened with some massive budget cuts. Given that a replacement for Arecibo won't be online until 2020 at best, folks are understandably upset. Turns out Arecibo is also one of the best shots we have at detecting an earth-threatening asteroid before it's too late and we have to sit through another Elijah Wood movie on the subject. You know what you have to do.

[Thanks, Brian]

Imaging Source Astronomy Cameras for gazing at the heavens

by Tim Stevens posted May 29th 2008 at 8:37PM

Stellar photography seems like a wondrous thing: you and a loved one on a starry night taking beautiful images of the heavens -- before making out. Unfortunately, anyone who has tried it knows it's more often a frustrating exercise of fiddling with exposure and aperture settings on your SLR while it hangs precariously off the side of your telescope, held in place only by a flimsy adapter ring. The Imaging Source has a simpler option, a series of digital cameras designed for slotting into your scope like an eye piece, capturing the night sky at up to 60-minute exposures over USB or FireWire. The range starts at $390 for a monochromatic VGA model, going all the way up to $870 for color and 1280 x 960 resolution. Not cheap, but it's probably a lot less than you paid for the equatorial mount on your new reflector.

[Via Picture Snob; thanks Jay]

Telectroscope lets Londoners and New Yorkers gaze at one another in real-time

by Darren Murph posted May 23rd 2008 at 11:04AM

Don't get too excited -- that image you see to the right isn't actually a transatlantic telescope. Rather, it's a transatlantic broadband network "rounded off on each end with HD cameras." Still, the 11.2- x 3.3-meter Telectroscope is a real marvel to look at, and it actually does enable viewers in New York and London to peer at each other in real-time. The creation will be on display and open to the public around the clock in both cities until June 15th, so if you've been meaning to ask for that dame's hand in marriage but couldn't afford the JFK - LHR ticket, why not set up a surprise meeting at the 'scope?

Gates and space-ace Simonyi gift $30m for giant telescope

by Christopher Grant posted Jan 5th 2008 at 11:05PM

The currently terrestrial Bill Gates and his former (and space-faring) Microsoft colleague, Charles Simonyi, have donated a cool $30m to a project that aims to build "the world's largest survey telescope" (cleverly) called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. On Thursday, the group said that Gates and Simonyi had donated $10m and $20m respectively to help develop the telescope, which Gates says "is truly an Internet telescope, which will put terabytes of data each night into the hands of anyone that wants to explore." The 8.4-meter telescope, which sports three large mirrors and three refractive lenses, will be built on a mountain in northern Chile and is scheduled to decimate the magic of your astronomy club in 2014.

Massive balloon takes solar telescope sky high

by Darren Murph posted Oct 23rd 2007 at 5:51PM

If you've been strangely itching to get a closer look at the Sun without totally ruining your eyesight, you can color yourself quite fortunate. The aptly-named Sunrise project is an international collaboration involving a number of institutions that have successfully sent a jumbo-jet sized balloon some 120,000 feet high with a solar telescope riding shotgun. The plan is to send the massive device on lengthy journeys beginning in 2009 "that will capture unprecedented details of the Sun's surface," and furthermore, it could enable scientists to launch instruments up for testing without having to strap them onto a rocket and consequently destroy their budget. Set to take flight in the summer of '09 from Kiruna, Sweden, the balloon is scheduled to "capture continuous images for a period of several days to as long as two weeks," and no, you can't buy a seat on this one.

[Via Physorg]

Mammoth liquid mirror telescope could be constructed on the moon

by Darren Murph posted May 29th 2007 at 9:03AM

Roger Angel's idea to launch a 100-meter liquid mirror telescope on the moon is far from the only mammoth-sized dream that could be headed into space, and if the feasibility study shows enough promise, it just might happen. The University of Arizona astronomer mentioned that the idea of putting an "enormous liquid-mirror telescope on the moon that could be hundreds of times more sensitive than the Hubble Space Telescope" had been around awhile, but apparently it's finally getting the attention it deserves. If constructed, it would easily be the largest ever built, and would reportedly allow scientists to "study the oldest and most distant objects in the universe, including the very first stars." The project is being investigated on behalf of NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts, and while these type devices are "relatively cheap" to build, it should be noted that it's being compared (at least financially) to the $4.5 billion James Webb Space Telescope. Now, where's the signup sheet for freelance contractors to get in on the moon-based build process?

[Via Wired]

NASA shows off James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble successor

by Donald Melanson posted May 11th 2007 at 1:32PM

With Hubble slowly winding down after years of service, NASA has now taken to talking up the telescope's successor, even going so far as to take a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on the road. Currently on display outside the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., the model measures an impressive 80 feet long and 40 feet high, which you'll have to be content with until the actual telescope launches in June 2013 at a cost of $4.5 billion. Once deployed, the telescope will sit some 1.5 million kilometers (or 930,000 miles) from Earth, and be able to peer far deeper into space than Hubble is able to, thanks in large part to the JWST's ginormous foldable mirror (almost three times bigger than Hubble's). If you can't make it to the Smithsonian to check out the model, you can at least get a better look at it in the gallery of images below courtesy of NASA.

Gallery: NASA shows off Hubble telescope successor

Hubble's main camera could be calling it quits

by Paul Miller posted Jan 30th 2007 at 12:11PM

That space telescope of space telescopes, NASA's Hubble, has suffered a serious setback this Saturday, and may never recover. The ACS (advanced camera for surveys), the main camera on the telescope, which was installed in 2002 and multiplied discovery capability by 10, has entered "safe mode," and NASA has little hope of a fix. A final shuttle-based repair mission is planned for 2008, but NASA already has a good bit on its to-do list, and since the ACS is such a complicated fix, it doesn't look like the Hubble will have use of its main camera for the rest of its duration in space. "In order to access the box cover and restore capability we would need to turn off the cooling system, and disconnect connections to the control module. It's a big job, the area is pretty limited; we are already challenged enough to do the other repairs and this spacewalk would be considerably more labor-intensive." Said Preston Burch, Hubble associate director at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Upgrades that will happen include new nickel hydrogen batteries, a couple of gyroscopes for locking on to targets, along with a new wide-field camera, "cosmic origins spectrograph," guidance sensor and outer protective layer. This should at least keep the Hubble running until 2013, and by then the Webb should be launched to replace the aging Hubble. Five back-to-back spacewalks will be required to fix the Hubble, but some say it's worth the risk to "save the Hubble," so perhaps NASA will figure out a way to squeeze it in by the 2008 flight.

[Via MetaFilter]

Starfire Optical Range -- a death ray for science's sake

by Paul Miller posted Jun 28th 2006 at 6:02PM

We're rather impressed with the US Air Force and their Starfire project. It's not every day you get to build a death ray on a desert hill in New Mexico and write it off as a scientific endeavor. The premise is that since the atmosphere diffracts light, messing up the view of ground-based optical telescopes, the Starfire shoots a laser 56 miles into the mesosphere and measures the distortion to adjust the telescope optics. Images from the Starfire are 40 times more accurate than regular, but the laser technology is coincidentally multi-purpose: "We don't hide the fact that it could help build an anti-satellite weapon," says the installation's chief, "if you choose to do it." Our thoughts exactly.

DALSA ships 111 megapixel CCD

by Evan Blass posted Jun 19th 2006 at 12:53PM

Don't expect to see one of these in a commercial DSLR anytime soon (especially now that Mamiya has left the game), but a division of DALSA Semiconductor has successfully manufactured and delivered a 111 megapixel image sensor that's only been topped on these pages by the 500 megapixel monster inside Fermilab's Dark Energy Camera. Putting even the highest-resolution bacteria-based cam to shame, the new 4-inch-square CCD features an array of 10,560 x 10,560 pixels, and was developed in conjunction with Semiconductor Technology Associates to aid the U.S. Naval Observatory's Astrometry Department in precisely determining the position and motion of celestial objects. While you probably can't afford to hire DALSA to build another one of these just for you, there's at least one option on the market that will give you the hundred-plus megapixel bragging rights you seek without breaking the bank: Better Light's 144 megapixel E-HS medium format backing, which, while technically only capturing 48 megapixels per color (and taking at least 66 seconds to do so), should still be enough to impress even your EOS 1Ds Mark II-sporting friends.