Chaotic Astronomy

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ESOcast 4: 24 hours in the life of an ESO astronomer.

Have you ever wondered what it must be like to be an astronomer? In this fourth episode of the ESOcast, Dr. J takes us behind the scenes at ESOs Very Large Telescope in Chile to show us what a day in the life of an ESO staff astronomer is like.

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The countdown for an exciting night with an observation run at the world’s most advanced optical telescope, the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT), has begun …

In this ESOcast episode, were going to follow a day in the life of Dieter Nürnberger. Dieter is a staff astronomer at ESO. His job is to support those scientists that have managed to get observing time on ESOs Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile. Dieter spends most of his working days helping the successful few to make ground-breaking discoveries.

Dieter Nürnberger is on his way to meet the visiting scientists to team up for the night to come. The three have been observing together for several nights, today is their final evening and they are keen to get started. Over dinner they discuss plans for the night ahead.

Well before sunset they leave the Residencia and drive up the desert road to the building housing the VLT control room. At the control building they prepare the observations and check the set up of the telescope. Observing time on these great Telescopes is precious and delays must be avoided at all costs.

Like a pilot checking his plane before departure, Dieter goes through a detailed check of his instrument, while the telescope operator does the same for the giant telescope. The astronomers have travelled far for a glorious view of the Universe, and here a glorious view of the sunset is included for free! As usual at Paranal, the conditions are perfect and Dieter and the visiting astronomers return with high expectations.

Read more: http://www.eso.org/public/videos/ESOCAST4/ESOCAST4.pdf

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ESOcast is produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory. ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the pre-eminent intergovernmental science and technology organisation in Astronomy designing, constructing and operating the worlds most advanced ground-based telescopes.

• http://www.eso.org/
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Duration : 0:6:0

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Science@ESA (Episode 4): Following The Redshift (Part 2) – Hubble’s Successor: The James Webb Space Telescope.

In this fourth episode of the Science@ESA vodcast series Rebecca Barnes will identify some of the key discoveries achieved with the famous Hubble Space Telescope, look at the concept of redshift, and meet a new telescope that will be used to uncover the early Universe.

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Named in 2002 in honour of NASA’s administrator during the Apollo programme, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission is a collaborative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

JWST will address many of the outstanding issues of modern Astronomy related to the ‘Early Universe’ and is expected to yield scientific breakthroughs as did its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. JWST will be a general-purpose observatory with a suite of astronomical infrared-sensitive instruments.

Compared to existing or planned observatories, JWST will have the unique advantage of combining superb image quality throughout a wide wavelength range, a wide field of view and unparalleled photon sensitivity due to its 6.5-metre diameter telescope primary mirror.

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=29

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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a planned infrared space observatory, the partial successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope. The JWST will not be a complete successor, because it will not be sensitive to all of the light wavelengths that Hubble can see.

The main scientific goal is to observe the most distant objects in the universe, those beyond the reach of either ground based instruments or the Hubble. The JWST project is a NASA-led international collaboration with contributors in fifteen nations, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Originally called the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), it was renamed in 2002 after NASA’s second administrator, James E. Webb (1906-1992). Webb had headed NASA from the beginning of the Kennedy administration through the Johnson administration (1961-68), thus overseeing all the manned launches in the Mercury through Gemini programs, until just before the first manned Apollo flight.

Current plans call for the telescope to be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket in June 2014, on a five-year mission (10 year goal). The JWST will reside in solar orbit near the Sun-Earth L2 point, which is on a line passing from the Sun to the Earth, but about 1.5 million km farther away from the Sun than is the Earth.

This position, which moves around the Sun in exact orbital synchrony with the Earth, will allow JWST to shield itself from infrared from both Sun and Earth, by using a single radiation shield positioned between the telescope and the Sun-Earth direction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope

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Duration : 0:6:42

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