Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
May 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998aas...192.6227s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 192nd AAS Meeting, #62.27; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 30, p.910
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
Site testing at the South Pole over the past few years has shown that conditions there are exceptionally good for infrared astronomy. From 2.3 to 13 microns, the sky brightness is typically between 20 and 50 times lower than at temperate sites. The sky emission is also much more stable, leading to greatly enhanced sensitivity in the thermal infrared. Although the seeing at ground level is only moderately good, the largest contribution to the seeing comes from a layer very close to the ground. Above a height of about 200 metres, the seeing appears to be exceptionally good. Plans are underway to develop a 2-metre class IR-optimised telescope for deployment to the South Pole. ``SPIRIT'' (the South Pole InfraRed Imaging Telescope) will employ low-order adaptive optics to compensate for the near-ground turbulence. Because of the low altitude of this seeing disturbance, diffraction-limited images should be obtainable over an extremely wide field of view - making SPIRIT ideal for wide-field surveys and cosmological studies.
No associations
LandOfFree
A Large-aperture IR Telescope does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with A Large-aperture IR Telescope, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Large-aperture IR Telescope will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1365052