Every night, astronomers use a new generation of giant telescopes at observatories around the world to study phenomena at the forefront of science. By focusing on the history of the Gemini ObservatoryÑtwin 8-meter telescopes located on mountain peaks in Hawaii and ChileÑGiant Telescopes tells the story behind the planning and construction of modern scientific tools, offering a detailed view of the technological and political transformation of astronomy in the postwar era. Drawing on interviews with participants and archival documents, W. Patrick McCray describes the ambitions and machinations of prominent astronomers, engineers, funding patrons, and politicians in their effort to construct a modern facility for cutting-edge scienceÑand to establish a model for international cooperation in the coming era of Òmegascience.Ó His account details the technological, institutional, cultural, and financial challenges that scientists faced while planning and building a new generation of giant telescopes. Besides exploring how and why scientists embraced the promise and potential of new technologies, he considers how these new tools affected what it means to be an astronomer. McCrayÕs book should interest anyone who desires a deeper understanding of the science, technology, and politics behind finding our place in the universe.

This book gives students an in-depth look at how large telescopes work. The wonder and awe of space and the scientific instruments we use to study it both come shining through in this fascinating book. Full-color diagrams and illustrations will help students visualize how the technology of telescopes works. Students will learn about the creation of mirrors 26.2 feet wide and telescope teams that work together to create a telescope as powerful as if it had a mirror the size of Earth!

There is no dearth of books on telescope optics and, indeed, optics is clearly a keyelementinthedesignandconstructionoftelescopes.Butitisbynomeans the only important element. As telescopes become larger and more costly, other aspects such as structures, pointing, wavefront control, enclosures, and project management become just as critical. Although most of the technical knowledge required for all these ?elds is available in various specialized books, journal articles, and technical reports, they are not necessarily written with application to telescopes in mind. This bookisa?rstattemptatassemblinginasingletextthebasicastronomicaland engineering principles used in the design and construction of large telescopes. Itsaimistobroadlycoverallmajoraspectsofthe?eld,fromthefundamentals ofastronomicalobservationto optics, controlsystems,structural,mechanical, andthermalengineering,aswellasspecializedtopicssuchassiteselectionand program management. This subject is so vast that an in-depth treatment is obviously imprac- cal. Our intent is therefore only to provide a comprehensive introduction to the essential aspects of telescope design and construction. This book will not replace specialized scienti?c and technical texts. But we hope that it will be useful for astronomers, managers, and systems engineers who seek a basic understanding of the underlying principles of telescope making, and for s- cialists who wish to acquaint themselves with the fundamental requirements and approaches of their colleagues in other disciplines.

Proceedings volume for researchers and graduate students of astronomy, covering the most exciting science and key ELT projects.

A few years ago, a real break-through happened in observational astronomy: the un derstanding of the effect of atmospheric turbulence on the structure of stellar images, and of ways to overcome this dramatic degradation. This opened a route to diffraction-limited observations with large telescopes in the optical domain. Soon, the first applications of this new technique led to some outstanding astrophysical results, both at visible and infrared wavelengths. Yet, the potential of interferometric observations is not fully foreseeable as the first long-baseline arrays of large optical telescopes are being built or cOIIllnissioned right now. In this respect a comparison with the evolution of radio-astronomy is tempting. From a situation where, in spite of the construction of giant antennas, low angular resolution was prevailing, the introduction of long baseline and very long baseline interferometry and the rapid mastering of sophisticated image reconstruction techniques, have brought on a nearly routine basis high dynamic range images with milliarcseconds resolution. This, of course, has completely changed our views of the radio sky.

A new generation of large, ground-based telescopes are just coming into operation. They will take astronomical research well into the next century. These extremely powerful telescopes demand specially designed instruments and observing techniques. The VII Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics gathered together leading experts from around the world to review this technology. Based on the meeting, this timely volume presents eight specially written chapters covering all aspects of telescope instrumentation. This book provides an essential reference for all astronomers who will be the users of these large telescopes. It reviews both the challenges involved in designing successful instrumentation and the questions in astronomy they must address. We are taken from the fundamentals of astronomical imaging, low- and high-resolution spectroscopy, and polarimetry up to the state-of-the-art technology in adaptive optics and laser guide stars, interferometry, image pattern recognition, and optical, near and mid infrared arrays. This timely volume provides an excellent introduction for graduate students and an invaluable reference for researchers using the latest generation of large astronomical telescopes.

The idea of holding a colloquium on Schmidt telescopes (techniques and science) originated from the observation that, in the last ten years and in spite of the remarkable developments and achievements in this field of astronomical research, there had been no specific opportunity for the experts to meet together, make the point on the state of the art, discuss and coordinate future plans. Therefore, Prof. L. Rosino, one of the pioneers in the use of wide-field telescopes, driven also by the wish of honouring the over four decades of activity of the Asiago Observatory, proposed to the Executive Committee of the International Astronomical Union to sponsor a colloquium on 'Astronomy with Schmidt type telescopes I to be held at Asiago at the end of the summer of 1983. Details about the composition of the Scientific Organizing Committee and the sponsoring organizations are given in Prof. Rosino's 'Welcome to the Participants • The granting of this proposal was the beginning of a ' number of headaches tor the members of the Local Organizing Committee, R. Barbon, F. Ciatti, P. Rafanelli and myself. If, organlzationwise, the colloquium was successful, this is truly due to the generous efforts of my colleagues of the SOC and to the efficient organization of the Linta Park, the hotel hosting the meeting.

This volume is the proceedings of IAU Symposium No. 118 on "Instrumentation. and Research Programmes for Small Telescopes", where small telescopes were defined as those ground-based instruments with apertures less than 1.5m. The scientific goal of the symposium was to emphasise research programmes which were more suited to smaller tele scopes, on which frequent regular observations can be made. A wide variety of topics on instrumentation, photometry, spectroscopy and polarimetry of objects in the solar system to extragalactic systems were discussed. Each of the four scientific days of the symposium comprised a number of invited review papers, contributed oral papers and discussion sessions devoted purely to the large number (~4) of poster papers. An introductory paper on the research potential of small telescopes sets the scene for the symposium. The proceedings have then been divided into three sections. Section I: Telescopes and instrumentation; Section II: Photometric research programmes; Section III: Spectroscopic research programmes. The diversity of topics within each of these sections indicated the extent to which small telescopes have (and can) contribute greatly to astronomical research. Dr J.A. Graham's summary of the symposium, which illustrates the opportunities available with small telescopes, concludes these proceedings. As in all symposia, the importance of the discussion following each paper was realised. The discussion was recorded on tape (and wherever possible on questions and answer sheets), transcribed and then edited.

This three-volume set details the essential roles that small telescopes should play in 21st century science and how their future productivity can be maximized. Over 70 international experts have created a definitive reference on the present and future of "big science with small telescopes".