04.01.2015 Views

Astronomy Principles and Practice Fourth Edition.pdf

Astronomy Principles and Practice Fourth Edition.pdf

Astronomy Principles and Practice Fourth Edition.pdf

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

394 High energy instruments <strong>and</strong> other detectors<br />

Figure 23.12. The international Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) in preparation. (By permission of the<br />

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.)<br />

Figure 23.13. The atmospheric windows for mm-astronomy. The dots indicate the frequencies corresponding to<br />

emissions from various molecular species. Full curve, Mauna Kea (predicted); broken curve, sea level.<br />

stationed on Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii provides a 15 m dish made up of 276 separate panels of<br />

aluminium. Lightness of structure was achieved by pressing them from a honeycomb of lightweight<br />

aluminium <strong>and</strong> covering them with stretched aluminium sheets. Each panel is fixed to three motorized<br />

supports which can be controlled in positions to within ±3 µm so that the complete mirror is adjustable<br />

to the required parabolic shape. The collection aperture can be considered as an example of ‘active<br />

optics’.<br />

A special dome has been designed with a large slot to allow the collection dish an uninterrupted

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!