~astro-craze~

After posting all 14 posts about my astronomical craze, in my finals post here, I would love to tell you guys about Telescope. Without the invention of telescope, I don’t think understanding The Universe is possible. Thanks to Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janssen!

The idea that a mirror could be used as an objective instead of a lens was being investigated soon after the invention of the refracting telescope. The potential advantages of using parabolic mirrors, primarily reduction of spherical aberration with no chromatic aberration, led to many proposed designs and several attempts to build reflecting telescopes. In 1668,Isaac Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope, which bears his name, the Newtonian reflector.

One of the world greatest inventions of Telescope is (in my opinion) The Hubble Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a space shuttle in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Although not the first space telescope, Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well-known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, and is one of NASA's Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Hubble is the only telescope ever designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. Four servicing missions were performed from 1993–2002, but the fifth was cancelled on safety grounds following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Remember the heart- wrecking news few years back, on February 1, 2003?

Anyhow, the engineering aspects of The Hubble Telescope are extremely complicated and only geniuses can understand them. It is very delicate. This design, with two hyperbolic mirrors, is known for good imaging performance over a wide field of view, with the disadvantage that the mirrors have shapes that are hard to fabricate and test. Construction of the mirror components of telescope began at 1979, and ended in May 1981! Can u imagine how much of efforts, hard work, blood, sweat and tears were put through when building it?

Let us all appreciate Him for the wonderful nature, Universe that is blessed to us. Without all His creation, human beings will never discover knowledge. Without His blessing, Human will not evolve into what we are today; most probably we will still be in ancient ages. To show appreciation to Him, we should start love ourselves, care for those around us. The least we can do is, appreciate His creation: NATURE.

For more info, log on to:

1) www.hubblesite.org

2) hubble.nasa.gov/