An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A → NASA funded project to support and provide to the astronomical community a variety of astronomical data archives, with the primary focus on scientifically related data sets in the optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared parts of the spectrum. MAST is a huge database that contains astronomical observations of stars, planets and galaxies from 16 separate NASA space science missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope. It is located at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).

In honor of senator Barbara A. Mikulski for her active support for science, NASA, and the astrophysics community; → archive; → space; → telescope.

A small telescope dedicated entirely to → asterolseismology. MOST is the first space telescope entirely designed and constructed by Canada. It was launched into space in 2003. The satellite weighs only 54 kg and is equipped with an ultra high precision telescope that measures only 15 centimetres in diameter. Despite its tiny size, it is ten times more sensitive than the → Hubble Space Telescope in detecting the minuscule variations in a star's luminosity caused by vibrations that shake its surface. MOST completes one orbit around the Earth every 101 minutes by passing over each of Earth's poles.

MOST, short for Microvariability and Oscillations of STars telescope.

An → instrument used in → geophysics to determine the average → density of geological bodies by measuring the → attenuation produced by → rocks on the flux of → atmospheric muons. This density muon → radiography is or example used to study the physical conditions inside → volcanoes.

→ muon; → telescope.

A telescope with a concave paraboloidal objective mirror and a small plane mirror that reflects rays from the primary mirror laterally outside the tube where the image is viewed with an eyepiece.

→ Newtonian; → telescope.

A telescope whose receiver is sensitive to → radio waves.

→ radio; → telescope.

A telescope in which the image is produced by reflection of light by a concave mirror.

Reflecting, verbal adj. of → reflect; → telescope.

A telescope in which an image is formed by the refraction of light through a lens or lens system.

→ refracting; → telescope.

A type of → Cassegrain telescope in which the → primary mirror is a → hyperboloid. It is designed to eliminate → coma and → spherical aberration, thus providing a relatively large field of view as compared to a more conventional configuration.

Named after the American astronomer George Ritchey (1864-1945) and the French optician Henri Chrétien (1879-1956); → telescope.

A telescope with a spherical concave primary mirror in which the aberration produced by the spherical mirror is compensated for by a thin correcting lens placed at the opening of the telescope tube. Its very wide-field performance makes it suitable for surveys.

Named after Bernhard Woldemar Schmidt (1879-1935), a German optician of Estonian origin, who invented the telescope in 1930; → telescope.

A mixture of the → Cassegrain telescope with a very short → focal length and of a Schmidt design (due to the presence of the → corrective plate), used mainly in → amateur astronomy. The main advantage of this telescope is its compact design. However, Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes produce fainter images with less contrast than other telescope designs with similar → aperture sizes. This is due to the comparatively large → secondary mirror required to reflect the light back the → eyepiece.

→ Schmidt telescope; → Cassegrain telescope.

A telescope designed so that heating effects produced by the Sun do not distort the images.

→ solar; → telescope.

A telescope which is placed in an orbit around the → Earth and operates through commands from sent from the control center on Earth, such as → Hubble space telescope, → Herschel satellite, → Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), → Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), → International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), → Planck Satellaite , → Spitzer Space Telescope.

→ space; → telescope.

An infrared telescope launched by NASA on 25 August 2003, the last in the series of Great Observatories. It was placed into a heliocentric orbit with a period of revolution that causes it to drift away from Earth at a rate of 0.1 → astronomical unit per year. Spitzer has a 85-cm primary mirror, made of beryllium and is equipped with three cryogenically-cooled science instruments: 1) IRAC (Infrared Array Camera), which operates simultaneously on four wavelengths (3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8 µm); 2) IRS (Infrared Spectrograph), with four sub-modules which operate at the wavelengths 5.3-14 µm (low resolution), 10-19.5 µm (high resolution), 14-40 µm (low resolution), and 19-37 µm (high resolution); and 3) MIPS (Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer), three detector arrays in the → far infrared at 24, 70, and 160 µm. So far Spitzer has obtained precious data on all sorts of astronomical objects, thus contributing to all fields of astrophysics. It has also performed two sky surveys: GLIMPS, which covers 300° of the inner Milky Way galaxy, consisting of approximately 444,000 images taken at 4 separate wavelengths with the IRAC, and MIPSGAL a similar survey covering 278° of the Galactic disk at longer wavelengths.The planned nominal mission period was to be 2.5 years with a pre-launch expectation that the mission could extend to five or slightly more years until the onboard liquid helium supply was exhausted. This occurred on 15 May 2009. Without liquid helium to cool the telescope, most instruments are no longer usable. However, the two shortest wavelength modules of the IRAC camera are still operable and will continue to be used in the Spitzer Warm Mission.

Named in honor of Lyman Spitzer (1914-1997), an American theoretical physicist and astronomer best known for his research in star formation and plasma physics, who first suggested (1940s) placing telescopes in orbit to escape interference from the Earth's atmosphere; → space; → telescope.

An instrument used to collect and amplify light or other energy. → Refracting telescopes gather light by means of a lens, → reflecting telescopes by means of a mirror. → Radiotelescopes gather radio energy by using an antenna. Telescopes have also been built that can gather X rays, gamma rays, and other forms of energy. → grazing incidence telescope.

From It. telescopio (used by Galileo, 1611), and Mod.L. telescopium (used by Kepler, 1613), both from Gk. teleskopos "far-seeing," from → tele- "far" + -skopos "seeing," from skopein "to watch, look, behold;" → -scope.

Durbin, from dur-, → tele-, + -bin "to see; seer," → -scope.

A covering, usually hemispherical, that is rotatable about a central axis. There is a slit opening along one side wide enough to allow a telescope to be directed at any vertical angle up to 90°.

→ telescope; → dome.

The accuracy with which a telescope can be pointed to a particular coordinate in the sky.

→ telescope; → pointing; accuracy.

A telescope, usually of long → focal length, that is situated underneath a tower. Tower telescopes are mainly used for observation of the Sun. See also → solar telescope; → solar tower.

→ tower; → telescope.

Same as → transit instrument.

→ transit; → telescope.

A Belgian facility devoted to the detection and characterization of → exoplanets and to the study of → comets (→ transiting planet) and other → small solar system bodies. It consists of two 60 cm robotic telescopes located at the → European Southern Observatory, → La Silla, in Chile and at Oukaïmden Observatory in Marroco.

→ transit; → planet; → planetesimal; → small; → telescope.

An observing facility consisting of four 8.2 m telescopes, with the combined collecting area of a 16 m mirror, owned and operated by the European Southern Observatory at an altitude of 2635 m at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The four reflecting unit telescopes are called Antu "Sun" in the language of Chile's indigenous Mapuche people, Kueyen "Moon," Melipal "Southern Cross," and Yepun "Venus." Each unit is equipped with several sophisticated instruments. The light of the individual telescopes can be combined using interferometric techniques to achieve superior resolution. → VLT Interferometer (VLTI). The wavelength range covered by the VLT is extremely wide, ranging from deep ultraviolet to mid-infrared.

→ very; → large; → telescope.