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Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. The term ''observatoire'' has been used in French since at least 1976 to denote any institution that compiles and presents data on a particular subject (such as public health observatory) or for a particular geographic area (European Audiovisual Observatory). Astronomical observatories Astronomical observatories are mainly divided into four categories: space observatory, space-based, airborne observatory, airborne, ground-based, and underground-based. Historically, ground-based observatories were as simple as containing a mural instrument (for measuring the angle between stars) or Stonehenge (which has some alignments on astronomical phenomena). Ground-based observatories Ground-based observatories, located on the surface of Earth, are u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The array has been constructed on the elevation Chajnantor plateau – near the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment. This location was chosen for its high elevation and low humidity, factors which are crucial to reduce noise and decrease signal attenuation due to Earth's atmosphere. ALMA provides insight on star birth during the early Stelliferous era and detailed imaging of local star and planet formation. ALMA is an international partnership amongst Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Chile. Costing about US$1.4 billion, it is the most expensive ground-based telescope in operation. ALMA began scientific observations in the second half of 2011 and the first images were rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paranal Observatory
Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It is located in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile on Cerro Paranal at altitude, south of Antofagasta. By total light-collecting area, it is the largest optical-infrared observatory in the Southern Hemisphere; worldwide, it is second to the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii. The Very Large Telescope (VLT), the largest telescope on Paranal, is composed of four separate telescopes. In addition, the four main telescopes can be used simultaneously for extra light gathering capacity, and for interferometry. Four auxiliary telescopes of each are also part of the VLTI to make it available when the main telescopes are being used for other projects. The site also houses two survey telescopes with wide fields of view, the VISTA and the VLT Survey Telescope for surveying large areas of the sky; and two arrays of small telescopes called NGTS and SPECULOOS which are dedicated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauna Kea Observatories
The Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO) are a group of independent astronomical research facilities and large telescope observatories that are located at the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii (island), Hawaiʻi, United States. The facilities are located in a 525-acre (212 ha) special land use zone known as the "Astronomy Precinct", which is located within the 11,228-acre (4,544 ha) Mauna Kea Science Reserve. The Astronomy Precinct was established in 1967 and is located on land protected by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, Historical Preservation Act for its significance to Hawaiian culture. The presence and continued construction of telescopes Opposition to the Mauna Kea Observatories, is highly controversial due to Mauna Kea's centrality in native Hawaiian religion and culture, as well as for a variety of environmental reasons. The location is near ideal because of its light pollution, dark skies from lack of light pollution, good astronomical seeing, low Relative ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include planets, natural satellite, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxy, galaxies, meteoroids, asteroids, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Egyptian astronomy, Egyptians, Babylonian astronomy, Babylonians, Greek astronomy, Greeks, Indian astronomy, Indians, Chinese astronomy, Chinese, Maya civilization, M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Very Large Telescope
The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with a primary mirror that measures in diameter. These optical telescopes, named ''Antu'', ''Kueyen'', ''Melipal'', and ''Yepun'' (all words for astronomical objects in the Mapuche language), are generally used separately but can be combined to achieve a very high angular resolution. The VLT array is also complemented by four movable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) with apertures. The VLT is capable of observing both visible and infrared wavelengths. Each individual telescope can detect objects that are roughly four billion times fainter than what can be seen with the naked eye. When all the telescopes are combined, the facility can achieve an angular resolution of approximately 0.002 arcsecond. In single telescope mode, the angular resol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Airborne Observatory
An airborne observatory is an airplane or airship with an astronomical telescope. By carrying the telescope to a sufficiently high altitude, the telescope can avoid cloud cover, pollution, and carry out Observational astronomy, observations in the infrared spectrum, above water vapor in the atmosphere which water absorption, absorbs infrared radiation. Some drawbacks to this approach are the instability of the lifting platform, the weight restrictions on the instrument, the need to safely recover the gear afterward, and the cost compared to a comparable ground-based observatory. Multiple observations of solar eclipses were performed from 1920 to 1980. NASA created first specialised airborne observatory, Galileo, in 1965. SOFIA, the latest such observatory, was retired in 2022. History Eclipse chasing Early attempts First attempts to observe astronomical objects from planes were made in 1920 from a biplanes. Until 1960, the main objects of such observations were solar eclipses. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Health Observatory
A public health observatory is an organization or program that monitors and reports on the public health of a particular region or topic in order to inform health policy. Depending on the geographical area or focus of work, it may also be called a "regional health observatory", "urban health observatory", or "national health observatory". In 2016, a study in the '' European Journal of Public Health'' catalogued at least 150 public health observatories worldwide, and that their main functions were reporting on health, performing data analysis, and supporting evidence-based decision-making. A public health observatory does not generate primary data itself, and instead focuses on synthesizing and collecting existing data. Environmental health, diet, recreation, outdoor education, exercise and other concerns are explored by some public health observatories. Examples International * The Global Health Observatory, established and operated by the World Health Organization (WHO). * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astronomical Seeing
In astronomy, seeing is the degradation of the real image, image of an astronomical object due to turbulence in the atmosphere of Earth that may become visible as blurring, twinkling or variable Distortion (optics), distortion. The origin of this effect is rapidly changing variations of the optical refractive index along the light path from the object to the detector. Seeing is a major limitation to the angular resolution in astronomical observations with telescopes that would otherwise be Angular resolution#The Rayleigh criterion, limited through diffraction by the size of the telescope aperture. Today, many large scientific ground-based optical telescopes include adaptive optics to overcome seeing. The strength of seeing is often characterized by the angular diameter of the long-exposure image of a star (''seeing disk'') or by the Fried parameter ''r''0. The diameter of the seeing disk is the full width at half maximum of its optical intensity. An exposure time of several tens o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meteorology
Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agriculture, construction, weather warnings and disaster management. Along with climatology, atmospheric physics and atmospheric chemistry, meteorology forms the broader field of the atmospheric sciences. The interactions between Earth's atmosphere and its oceans (notably El Niño and La Niña) are studied in the interdisciplinary field of hydrometeorology. Other interdisciplinary areas include biometeorology, space weather and planetary meteorology. Marine weather forecasting relates meteorology to maritime and coastal safety, based on atmospheric interactions with large bodies of water. Meteorologists study meteorological phenomena driven by solar radiation, Earth's rotation, ocean currents and other factors. These include everyday ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Climatology
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "slope"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. Climate concerns the atmospheric condition during an extended to indefinite period of time; weather is the condition of the atmosphere during a relative brief period of time. The main topics of research are the study of climate variability, mechanisms of climate changes and modern climate change. This topic of study is regarded as part of the atmospheric sciences and a subdivision of physical geography, which is one of the Earth sciences. Climatology includes some aspects of oceanography and biogeochemistry. The main methods employed by climatologists are the analysis of observations and modelling of the physical processes that determine climate. Short term weather forecasting can be interpreted in terms of knowledge of longer-term phenomena of climate, for insta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Audiovisual Observatory
The European Audiovisual Observatory (, ) is a public service organisation, part of the Council of Europe set up in 1992 as a partial agreement. The observatory collects and analyses data about the audiovisual industry in Europe, such as cinema, television, radio, video, Video On Demand and Catch-up TV. The observatory's headquarters are located in the Villa Schutzenberger in Strasbourg. Lumiere (database) Lumiere (stylized as LUMIERE) is an online database of ticket sales for films released in 27 European territories, created in cooperation with national information sources and the MEDIA Programme of the European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u .... References External links Lumiere {{Authority control 1992 establishments in France Organizations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Observatory
A space telescope (also known as space observatory) is a telescope in outer space used to observe astronomical objects. Suggested by Lyman Spitzer in 1946, the first operational telescopes were the American Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, OAO-2 launched in 1968, and the Soviet Orion (space telescope), Orion 1 ultraviolet telescope aboard space station Salyut 1 in 1971. Space telescopes avoid several problems caused by the atmosphere, including the absorption or scattering of certain wavelengths of light, obstruction by clouds, and distortions due to atmospheric refraction such as twinkling. Space telescopes can also observe dim objects during the daytime, and they avoid light pollution which Observatory#Ground-based observatories, ground-based observatories encounter. They are divided into two types: Satellites which map the entire sky (astronomical survey), and satellites which focus on selected astronomical objects or parts of the sky and beyond. Space telescopes are distinct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
