Yi-P wrote:Killakoala wrote:adam wrote:Amazing!!!
I wonder what they'll get when they point it at earth
*waves at the sky*
Google Earth
Apparently the field of view of the Hubble is one tenth that of the moon. Now that is some telephoto.
That is also the biggest lens ever built I believe.
Not the biggest lens for so many reasons... firstly and most importantly, its a mirror, not a lens
Its not the biggest mirror either, there are a number of 8 metre mirrors in use now, Hubble's mirror is 2.4 metres.
They don't take photos of Sol, Earth or the Moon with it either, from wiki:
>
The solar avoidance angle is about 45°, which is specified to keep sunlight from illuminating any part of the OTA. Earth and Moon avoidance is to keep bright light out of the FGSs and to keep scattered light from entering the instruments. If the FGSs are turned off, however, the Moon and Earth can be observed. Earth observations were used very early in the program to generate flat-fields for the WFPC1 instrument.
Whilst they could point it at Earth, they wouldn't be able to guide it without the Fine Guidance Sensors, plus theres a lack of guidestars on Earth even if the FGSs could be used!