Hubble telescope. the pictures are they just like a photo we take?

Question

here on earth say of a tree . the hubble then take a pic of a tree and it would look the same or are the pictures based on computer program sort of specualation as to what they think something with that wave length or something would look like
i suppose what i am asking is if i had my own gaint telescope bigger then anyone could imagine but still just regular glass in there would i see the same thing as the hubble . leave out the light and smog of earth would it be the exact same.

Answer 1

hubble can take much clearer pictures than an amature telescope can because it is out in space. telescopes here on earth have to look through the blurring effects of our atmosphere. kind of like if you were at the bottom of a swimming pool looking up. however there is a technique called adaptive optics which can compensate for the blurring effects of the atmosphere and is allowing earthbased telescopes to obtain much clearer pictures than ever before. another thing about telescopes is their size, the bigger the scope the small and dimmer the things they can see. meaning that they essentialy can see further away. and yes, the pictures would be exaclty the same.... hope this helps!!!!!!

Answer 2

You could take pictures similar to (though much less detailed than) the Hubble's with a backyard telescope and a CCD camera. Check out the pictures in "Astronomy" or "Sky & Telescope" to see what amateur astronomers can do.

There is considerable computer processing involved in producing astro photos, whether from Hubble or an amateur scope, but there is no speculation or simulation involved. However, astro cameras can see a broader spectrum of light than we do, so there is a certain amount of remapping of that spectrum to the visible. This means that even up close, you wouldn't see the colors that the photos show.

For example, the red color that dominates many nebulae is in a wavelength that our eyes are not very sensitive to. But it is emphasized in many astrophotos because it is the color emitted by glowing hydrogen.

Astro cameras don't take photographs in the normal color range that regular cameras do. Instead, they take a series of exposures through a variety of colored filters, some of which may emphasize infrared or ultraviolet wavelengths that we can't see. The astronomers then combine these different exposures to make a color image. The colors of nebula photos are usually selected to emphasize the spectral emissions of the various gasses, rather than to represent what your eye would see. Planetary photos, on the other hand, are often processed to approximate "natural" color, though there is often a bit of contrast enhancement thrown in.

One of the advantages that the Hubble telescope has is that it can see wavelengths of infrared that are blocked by Earth's atmosphere. The Webb telescope that is planned to replace Hubble will be designed to work mostly in the infrared, in large part so that it can see the strongly red-shifted emissions from very distant (and therefore very early) galaxies.

Answer 3

It is an optical lens just like any here on earth. The computer is just a means to get the pictures back here quickly. Hubble does take much clearer images in space because of the lack of atmosphere and pollution blurring the images...

Answer 4

Pretty much. The camera on the Hubble is a whole lot more sensitive, and there is a bit of computer signal processing at work to flat-field the image and guarantee that there weren't any 'hot' spots on the CCD. But it's pretty much the same as you'd take in your back yard if you had a bunch of money to spend.

Doug

Answer 5

Well, the "lens" is actually a set of mirrors, but the idea is the same (in fact, even better because glass is not equally transparent to all wavelengths).

However, if you had a large telescope on Earth, you'd probably have a reflector (meaning: with a mirror "lens") rather than a refractor: giant pieces of glass are heavy and difficult (expensive) to manufacture to such precision.

Answer 6

yes they are very similar. it is just a big camera in space that can take pictures of things hundreds of light years away

Answer 7

I contacted some other observatories and dug up info in our observatories massive database for you .


How Hubble Space Telescope Works

Imagine having an "eye" on the universe, being able to look out at a distant star or nebula with amazing clarity. With such a telescope, you could peer billions of light years away and see things that happened billions of years ago. Astronomers are doing just that with the Hubble Space Telescope!

Like any telescope, the HST has a long tube that is open at one end. It has mirrors to gather and bring the light to a focus where its "eyes" are located. The HST has several types of "eyes" in the form of various instruments. Just like some animals can see various types of light, such as ultraviolet light (e.g. insects) or visible light (e.g. humans), the HST must also be able to see the various types of light raining down from the heavens. These various scientific instruments make HST the amazing astronomy tool that it is. However, the HST is not only a telescope with scientific instruments -- it is also a spacecraft. As such, it must have power and be able to move in orbit. To satisfy both its telescope and spacecraft functions, HST has the following systems:

--Telescope functions --
Optics
primary mirror
secondary mirror
corrective optics

--Scientific Instruments --

Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2)
Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS)
Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)
Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)
Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS)

--Spacecraft Systems --
Power
Communications
Steering
Computing
Structure
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How The Optics Work
HST is compound telescope design (i.e. Ritchey-Chretien design). Light enters the telescope through the opening and bounces off the primary mirror to a secondary mirror. The secondary mirror reflects the light through a hole in the center of the primary mirror to a focal point behind the primary mirror. At the focal point, smaller, half-reflective, half-transparent mirrors distribute the light to the various scientific instruments. As mentioned above, the corrective optics were initially supplied by COSTAR, but are now built-in to new scientific instruments.
HST's mirrors are made of glass and coated with layers of pure aluminum (three-millionths of an inch thick) and magnesium fluoride (one-millionth of an inch thick) to make them reflect visible, infra-red and ultraviolet light. The primary mirror weighs 1,825 pounds (828 kg). The secondary mirror weighs 27.4 pounds (12.3 kg).
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Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2)
WFPC2 is the main "eye," or camera, of the HST. Like the retina of your eye, WFPC2 has four CCD chips to catch the light, three low resolution, wide-field CCD chips arranged in an "L" shape and one, high resolution planetary camera CCD chip inside that "L." All four CCD chips are exposed to the target at the same time, and the target image is centered on the desired CCD chip, either high or low resolution. It sees visible and ultraviolet light. WFPC2 can take images through various filters (red, green, blue) to make natural color pictures, such as this image of the Eagle nebula.

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Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS)
Often times, interstellar gas and dust can block our vision of the visible light from various celestial objects; however, it is possible to see the infra-red light, or heat, from the objects hidden in the dust and gas. To see this infra-red light, HST has three sensitive cameras which make up NICMOS. NICMOS can see through interstellar gas and dust that blocks visible light, as shown in this image of the Orion nebula. In the visible image (WFPC2), we see large clouds of dust with little or no detail; however, when we examine the infra-red image (NICMOS), we can see stars within the clouds.
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Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)
It's one thing to look at the light from a celestial object -- but how can you tell what the object is made of? The colors, or spectrum of light, coming from a star or other celestial object is a chemical fingerprint of that object. The specific colors tell us what elements are present in the object, and the intensity of each color tells us how much of that element is present. So to identify the colors, the specific wavelengths of light, the STIS separates the incoming colors of light much like a prism makes a rainbow.

In addition to the chemical composition, the spectrum can tell us about the temperature and motion of a celestial object. If the object is moving, the chemical fingerprint can be shifted toward the blue end (moving toward us) or the red end (moving away from us) of the spectrum. For example, the STIS slit is centered over the core of galaxy M84 (the blue rectangle in the left side of the figure below). If there were no movement, then the spectrum should be the same across the entire area of the slit. However, the light in the center of the slit is blue- and red-shifted, which indicates that this particular area (within 26 light years of the core) is spinning at a speed of 800,000 mph (400 kps). Astronomers calculated that, to cause such a spin, a massive black hole (~300 million solar masses) must be present in the galaxy's core.


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HST Facts
Length = 43.5 ft (13.2 m)
Width = 14 ft (4.2 m)
Weight = 12 tons (11 metric tons)
Aperture of primary mirror = 94.5 in (2.4 m)
Aperture of secondary mirror = 12 in (0.3 m)
Orbit - 380 mi (612 km), inclined 28.5 degrees relative to equator
Orbital period - 97 minutes
Orbital speed - 17,500 mi/h (28,000 km/h)
Cost - $2.2 billion at launch
Lifespan ~ 20 yrs

Answer 8

not sure -- would check Nasa site -- http://hubble.nasa.gov/ and maybe wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope