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Hubble Space Telescope images

PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 1:50 pm
by Killakoala
Anyone want to print their own HST images?

Then this website is for you. It has full size TIF and JPG images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope.

The detail of the images when viewed at full size is quite remarkable.

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/index.html

PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 5:07 pm
by Yi-P
Simply amazing photographs they have there!!! :shock:

PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 1:49 am
by adam
Amazing!!!

I wonder what they'll get when they point it at earth :D *waves at the sky*

PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:51 am
by Killakoala
adam wrote:Amazing!!!

I wonder what they'll get when they point it at earth :D *waves at the sky*


Google Earth :)

Apparently the field of view of the Hubble is one tenth that of the moon. Now that is some telephoto. ;)

PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 10:23 am
by markjd
Thanks for the link. Some good desktop wallpaper material :)


Mark

PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:40 pm
by Yi-P
Killakoala wrote:
adam wrote:Amazing!!!

I wonder what they'll get when they point it at earth :D *waves at the sky*


Google Earth :)

Apparently the field of view of the Hubble is one tenth that of the moon. Now that is some telephoto. ;)


That is also the biggest lens ever built I believe.

PostPosted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 10:07 pm
by Gordon
Yi-P wrote:
Killakoala wrote:
adam wrote:Amazing!!!

I wonder what they'll get when they point it at earth :D *waves at the sky*


Google Earth :)

Apparently the field of view of the Hubble is one tenth that of the moon. Now that is some telephoto. ;)


That is also the biggest lens ever built I believe.


Not the biggest lens for so many reasons... firstly and most importantly, its a mirror, not a lens ;) Its not the biggest mirror either, there are a number of 8 metre mirrors in use now, Hubble's mirror is 2.4 metres.


They don't take photos of Sol, Earth or the Moon with it either, from wiki:

>
The solar avoidance angle is about 45°, which is specified to keep sunlight from illuminating any part of the OTA. Earth and Moon avoidance is to keep bright light out of the FGSs and to keep scattered light from entering the instruments. If the FGSs are turned off, however, the Moon and Earth can be observed. Earth observations were used very early in the program to generate flat-fields for the WFPC1 instrument.

Whilst they could point it at Earth, they wouldn't be able to guide it without the Fine Guidance Sensors, plus theres a lack of guidestars on Earth even if the FGSs could be used!

PostPosted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:06 am
by Killakoala
I can't wait until the Hubble is replaced with something bigger and better (If ever.)

PostPosted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:38 pm
by kingdean
The only reason it's still going is due to emotional attachment to the Hubble from the public and such

It is out dated and need to be replaced and I don't see why not, higher quality images with better sensors would aid the Science and the general population who want to see pretty pictures

PostPosted: Tue Jul 03, 2007 9:17 pm
by Oneputt
Those images are mind blowing and I now have a new desktop. :D Thank you for the link. :D

PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:47 am
by Steffen
Oneputt wrote:Those images are mind blowing and I now have a new desktop. :D Thank you for the link. :D


Same here. I've been looking for hi-res wallpapers for my new monitor, and some of these are plenty big! I picked five of them that take turns as my wallpaper now. Good stuff!

Cheers
Steffen.

PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:54 am
by Steffen
kingdean wrote:The only reason it's still going is due to emotional attachment to the Hubble from the public and such

It is out dated and need to be replaced and I don't see why not, higher quality images with better sensors would aid the Science and the general population who want to see pretty pictures


It's not just pretty pictures. Those HST shots have us in awe because they illustrate what everybody knew from textbooks but nobody ever saw before. I personally don't remember seeing individual stars in galaxies (other than our own, and not counting supernovas) before HST.

Sure, better telescopes will follow, but the HST has earned its place in scientific history.

Cheers
Steffen.