Yes, Michael Griffin has announed that Hubble Space Telescope will have its Service Mission 4 (SM4), the final SM, in 2008. It will be giving stunning discoveries again with the latest scientific instruments.
New batteries will be installed during this mission. The capacity of the olds are degraded and cannot work for 2 to 3 more years. Thermal blankets protecting it against the harsh environment of space will be installed as well. Don’t forget the almost broken down gyroscopes. Some of the current are dead and it is running on the backup gyroscopes. These are the basic equipments for it to function properly. Now, we go to the astronomical instruments.
One of the three fine-guidiance sensors will be replaced to improve its ability to track faint guide stars and measure stellar positions with greater accuracy. The Wide Field Camera 3 and Cosmic Origins Spectrograph are the Hubble’s new guns. These two powerful instruments will push its ability to the peak. The astronauts will try to repair the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. It has stopped operating since 2 years ago when a power supply failed.
Good luck to all the astronauts and staffs joinning this service mission. Did I mention that HST is as old as I am?
The resolution of a telescope is presented in arcsecond (“). It’s related to the aperture of your telescope. The larger the aperture, the closer the object it can resolve. A high resolution telescope is handy when it comes to double stars observation, Moon features observation and many more.
θ: Resolution (in arcsecond)
D: Diameter (in mm)
Published on
November 24, 2006 in
General.
My home internet connectivity is promised by the ISP to be recovered by tomorrow. Hopefully, I will be able to blog again.
Leonids Spotted: 2
Date: 18 November 2006
Time: 0500 to 0610
Direction: [Read the article below]
One word to describe the scene, WOW! Although I didn’t see 100 meteors per hour as predicted as I am not in the peak time zone, I am very happy with the result. This is the second time in my life. How many have you seen?
First meteor is spotted at 0534 travelling from north to south. Another is the earthgrazer which travels slowly on the sky. Earthgrazer is the most wonderful meteor. A rough figure of the earthgrazer from appearing in my sight to disappearing is 6 seconds. The duration is long though I was not fast enough to image it.
I want to do something new in the next meteor session. I will have my LX90 ready for automatic slewing to the radiation point of the meteor shower and image them! However, the telescope is most likely to be replaced by low focal length refractor. It will be piggybacked on my LX90. Why? I want a larger field. I want more to be in my photo.
You might be curious to know why is this report delayed for 3 days. My home internet connection spoilt again. I am not angry this time as I have learnt how to be patient. This is the spirit of ASTRONOMER!
The flash movie below was the last tab I opened in Firefox before my internet connection went down. It hasn’t back to normal yet. It forced me to online in other places. Click on the link below to enjoy the movie! The song is played by Eric Idle and the animation is done by Camilla Eriksson. Enjoy!
Time: 11:45PM UT+8
Date: 16 November 2006
Direction: South to north
Meteor Spotted: 1
Observing Duration: 1 hour
You aren’t going to believe it! I spotted a Leonid which travels from south to north. It looked like a burning fireball. I thought it was firework. After it disappeared in the sky, I just realised that it’s a meteor. However, I am not sure whether it’s Leonid since it’s two days before the predicted date. Anyway, prepare a mat in your garden or your favourite dark site and stare at the mysterious sky! There is no surprise that you can spot 100 meteors per hour.
The sky yesterday was extremely clear. I was playing with my LX90 but seems like it didn’t favour me as it’s kept in the cabinet for an extra long period. It’s time to have some tune-ups.
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