三部辅助望远镜

2024年5月4日

3 ATs
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)

Explanation: Despite their resemblance to R2D2, these three are not the droids you’re looking for. Instead, the enclosures house 1.8 meter Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) at Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert region of Chile. The ATs are designed to be used for interferometry, a technique for achieving extremely high resolution observations, in concert with the observatory’s 8 meter Very Large Telescope units. A total of four ATs are operational, each fitted with a transporter that moves the telescope along a track allowing different arrays with the large unit telescopes. To work as an interferometer, the light from each telescope is brought to a common focal point by a system of mirrors in underground tunnels. Above these three ATs, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the far, far away satellite galaxies of our own Milky Way. In the clear and otherwise dark southern skies, planet Earth’s greenish atmospheric airglow stretches faintly along the horizon.

Tomorrow’s picture: death by black hole

三部辅助望远镜
影像提供与版权: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)

说明: 虽然这三者皆酷似R2D2，但它们并不是你所想的机器人。实际上，这些建物位于智利阿塔卡玛沙漠的帕连那天文台，内有1.8米口径的辅助望远镜。这些辅助望远镜，是设计用来搭配此天文台的8米口径甚大望远镜单元，作为干涉仪使用，以进行超高解析的观测。帕连那天文台共有4部辅助望远镜，每部皆配有可沿轨道移动的搬运车，与极大望远镜单元共同组成不同组态的阵列。作为干涉仪使用时，每一部望远镜所收集的光，都会投射到位于地下坑道中的镜面组，然后聚集到共同的焦点上。在这些辅助望远镜的上空，可见到大与小麦哲伦星系这二个我们银河系的遥远伴星系。此外，在清朗幽暗的南天星空中，还可见到绵延分布在地平线附近的暗淡地球泛绿气辉。

明日的图片: death by black hole