Chaotic Astronomy

What is approximately the greatest distance out to which it is possible for ground-based Telescopes to measure parallax? Also, why does such a limit on parallax measurements exist?

There are different estimates. Pessimists might say we really can’t do better than about 50 light years reliably. Others may claim two or three hundred. Our ability will increase with more orbiting measuring devices planned in the future.

Parallax works by shooting an angle to a star from two positions which form the bottom two angles on a very long triangle. We use trigonometry to figure out how far away the other vertex of the triangle is. Our ability to do this is limited over long distances. Here’s an example. Suppose you could see and point at some point in California from your position in Maryland. Now you shoot an angle to it. Now you move over a half an inch and shoot another angle. You can see how close these two lines are to being parallel. And it is very difficult to tell where they intersect, or how far off of 90 degrees they are to the 1/2-inch baseline. It is actually about these same proportions that we are trying to measure stars with. The earth’s orbital diameter would be the half inch. Mind boggling that we can do even a fraction of this.

If you want to work in the Astronomy field, what types of jobs are available to you? How much would you earn per year? Descriptions or links, if possible, would be appreciated. Thank you.

Just about anywhere, from planetariums to prestigious universities. See link below.

The DS-2130ATS-LNT is a fully GoTo telescope. Its onboard computer knows the night sky. After a short alignment procedure, your telescope will be ready to take you on a tour of the universe. You will see more objects in one night than Galileo saw in a lifetime. See planets like Saturn and Jupiter, star clusters, nebulae, galaxies and more.

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What do you think the next generation of Telescopes will be? What can’t be done noe that needs to be done? Will the cost really be worth it?

There are several major telescopes in development that will be deployed in space. They will be visual, radio, interferometry, and infrared functions.

On earth we have the world’s largest reflector in production. The main mirror will be 100 meters wide.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2548103.stm

I love space and Astronomy and I just want to know if there are high paying astronomy jobs and what they are. But nothing that has to do with going up into space.

I am sure that NASA engineers make a good amount of money. They probably hire astronomy people for things like interpreting what they see in the Hubble Telescope. And since they are a government run agency they will probably over pay.

An upgrade from the 90mm Mak, this 130mm Mak offers images that are twice as bright as the 90mm, allowing for better performance in low light conditions. The Maksutov optical design is recognized for being a portable design that is easy to use and has a variety of applications, making it an excellent choice for both terrestrial and astronomical usage. This C130 Mak has excellent optics with razor sharp images over a wide field. The C130 Mak features an internal flip mirror design which allows the user to view celestial objects at a 90 degree angle and also corrects the image orientation to view land objects at a 45 degree angle. This model comes complete inside its own soft sided carrying case. The C130 Mak’s mounting bar is designed to work with a traditional heavy duty photo tripod and is also adaptable to Celestron’s Advanced GT equatorial mount.

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Are the Hubble, ESO, ESA, NASA and Spitzer Telescopes‘ deep-space photos protected by copyright, or are they open to use because they were obtained with government funds? What are the pertinent rules of usage? If permission is needed, where would that be obtained?.

Ciamalo … I thing Bryce’s advice is right on. I don’t really have a better answer.

I did want to add this, though: I can imagine an instance where an individual or non-government enterprise might pay NASA to carry a payload into space for them or where such an enterprise might lease NASA’s equipment for a special mission. In such a case, the data collected during the period of the lease may be considered the property of the enterprise and thus be subject to the same protections afforded to data collected by the company whenever they use their own equipment.

Mind you, I don’t know that for fact; I’m merely speculating.

I’m going into the eleventh grade and want a career in astronomy, or astrophysics but I don’t know what classes I need to take for them. Plz help!

Just your basic core classes, but try to do honors science and math (particularly physics) and succeed in them. If your high school has an Astronomy class, then take that, but I doubt it.