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General Considerations, Main Telescopes

• Around what year were telescopes first used in astronomy?
• What is a reflecting/refracting telescope?
• What are the advantages of reflecting/refracting telescopes?
• What kind of telescope do most astronomers use, and why?
• What is chromatic aberration?
• How big are the largest single mirrors currently used for telescopes?
• How large are the largest optical telescopes in use today?
• What feature made it possible to build mirrors as large as 10 m for the Keck telescopes?
• What is the Hubble Space Telescope?
• What is the main reason the Hubble Telescope gives great images?
• Can amateur astronomers make new astronomical discoveries today?

Telescope Performance

• What is the main purpose of a telescope?
• What are some reasons for building large telescopes?
• What determines the light-gathering power of a telescope?
• What is the angular resolution of a telescope?
• How can the angular resolution of a telescope be improved?
• What are the consequences of increasing the surface area of a telescope mirror?
• What is the main factor affecting a telescope's magnification?

Telescope Location, New Technology

• How can the effects of atmospheric turbulence be minimized?
• Why is a mountaintop a good location for telescopes?
• What do we mean by active and adaptive optics?
• What are CCD's?
• What are some advantages of CCD's?
• What is interferometry?
• What do we gain when we use interferometry with telescopes?

Video on the Hale Telescope on Mt. Palomar

• What important debate in astronomy was settled by Hubble in the late 1920's?
• What unexpected fact did Hubble discover in 1929 about distant galaxies?
• Why was the need felt in the 1930's to build a telescope larger than the one on Mt Wilson?
• How wide is the mirror of the Hale telescope on Mount Palomar?
• How long did it take to build the 200" Mount Palomar telescope? When was it completed?
• What is the most time-consuming part of building a large telescope?
• Where is the astronomer using the Mount Palomar telescope usually located?
• What are some of the important things seen with the Mount Palomar telescope?