Astronomers are obsessed with building larger and larger telescopes. There are two promises that we make with bigger telescopes: that they can see fainter things and that they see more detail. But it's been really hard to follow through on that second promise because of atmospheric distortion.
If you start out with a little telescope observing the stars and you keep at it over the years, as I have, it's kind of a dream to one day have an observatory where you can always go and use the telescope conveniently.
The future infrared space telescope will cover that area in a much more efficient manner.
OBSERVATORY, n. A place where astronomers conjecture away the guesses of their predecessors.
The Keck telescope, which is the largest in the world, had opened just before I began my faculty position at UCLA.
The thing about telescopes is that the mirror is the main component. Once that's built, you don't need to build new ones; you just need to swap out the instruments. There's nothing wrong with Hubble's mirror.
The Next Generation Space Telescope, which will be located much further away from the Earth than the Hubble Space Telescope presently is, will also explore the infrared part of the spectrum.
The James Webb Space Telescope was specifically designed to see the first stars and galaxies that were formed in the universe.
For a long time, we've worked on detecting planets with whatever was at hand, making use of existing small telescopes or even amateur telescopes. It's time to move on to the next stage.
The hardware and the software used in the Breakthrough project will be compatible with other telescopes around the world, so they too can search for intelligent life.
I have tried to improve telescopes and practiced continually to see with them. These instruments have play'd me so many tricks that I have at last found them out in many of their humours.
