Major Telescope Hosts World's Largest Digital Camera (nature.com) 25
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will begin full operations in the coming months with the world's largest digital camera, capturing 3,200-megapixel images that would require several hundred HD television screens to display at full resolution. The $810 million facility will map the entire southern sky every three to four nights, observing each location approximately 800 times over its planned decade of operations.
The telescope's unusual design allows it to photograph an area equivalent to 45 full moons in each shot and swing between different sky locations every 40 seconds. Its digital camera, roughly the size of a small car, will generate eight million alerts per night when it detects astronomical objects that move or change brightness, according to Tony Tyson, the University of California, Davis astronomer who conceived the project in the 1990s. Astrophysicist Federica Bianco, who received a preview of the telescope's first full-color image, described her reaction simply: "There are so many stars!" The team plans to unveil that inaugural image on June 23.
The telescope's unusual design allows it to photograph an area equivalent to 45 full moons in each shot and swing between different sky locations every 40 seconds. Its digital camera, roughly the size of a small car, will generate eight million alerts per night when it detects astronomical objects that move or change brightness, according to Tony Tyson, the University of California, Davis astronomer who conceived the project in the 1990s. Astrophysicist Federica Bianco, who received a preview of the telescope's first full-color image, described her reaction simply: "There are so many stars!" The team plans to unveil that inaugural image on June 23.
Unit conversion, please. (Score:2)
The telescope's unusual design allows it to photograph an area equivalent to 45 full moons in each shot.
How many LOCs is that? I only speak 'Murican.
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I was hoping for football fields, but no luck. :(
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AI to the rescue
AI Overview
The comparison of 45 full moons to the size of American football fields requires considering the moon's diameter and the length of a football field.
The moon has a diameter of approximately 2,160 miles. An American football field, including end zones, is 120 yards long, which equals 360 feet. There are 1,760 yards in a mile.
To find the moon's diameter in yards:
2,160 miles * 1760 yards/mile = 3,801,600 yards
To find the moon's diameter in football fields (along the length):
3,801,600
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The problem with football fields is, which type are you talking about? Is that Association Football fields, Rugby Football fields, American Football fields or Australian Rules Football fields?
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AI Overview
It's not meaningful to directly compare the size of 45 full moons in terms of physical area to the Library of Congress. The phrase "45 full moons" in this context refers to the field of view of a telescope, a measure of the area of the sky it can observe. The Library of Congress, on the other hand, is measured in terms of physical space and the quantity of its collections.
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1 full moon roughly 30 days, 30x45 gives nearly 4 rotations of the earth around the sun.
2 pi r will give you the circumference of the earth. Not a perfect sphere. Back of the envelope, roughly 85,000 in American miles?
Re: Unit conversion, please. (Score:2)
Are you calculating rotations through the timecube?
If not, then whatever is wrong!!!
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Came here for a Libraries of Congress reference.
Did not leave disappointed.
Did you know... (Score:2)
That the Full moon doesn't cover any more of the sky than the new moon , its just that more of it is lit up.
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Muting notifications. (Score:1)
What's the bit depth? (Score:2)
3200 x 1 million x Bit-Depth = ?. Just curious how much storage space is needed for one image.
Re:What's the bit depth? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, but (Score:2)
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I think you missed the GP's point.
Re: Yes, but (Score:3)
The military team scrub *alerts about objects *.
Three days later, the full unscrubbed image is shared with astronomers.
I guess they don't and can't care about stable orbits, but they want to retain surprise for dynamic situations.