Richard Hanes

Engl 202C
3/18/14
Charged-coupled Devices and Telescopes
Astronomers use a combination of charged-couled de!ices and telescoes to ta"e the breath-
ta"ing images of gala#ies$ lanetar% s%stems$ and other ama&ing ob'ects in the s"%( )hen aired together$
these de!ices ha!e made information gathering of the hea!ens much easier and more a!ailable to hundreds
of astronomers( *n order to understand their usefulness to modern astronom%$ it is necessar% to understand
the comonents indi!iduall%(
Telescopes
+elescoes are otical de!ices comosed of mirrors and lenses used to gather and focus light in
order to resol!e images of faint ob'ects( Astronomers use a !ariet% of telescoes in order to locate celestial
ob'ects and magnif% them to gain a better understanding of uni!erse( Created in the earl% 1,00-s b% .alileo$
telescoes ha!e e!ol!ed into the outstanding tool to /hich /e are all accustomed(
)ith the use of different t%es of mirrors and lenses$ telescoes maniulate light and focus it into
a single oint$ /here /e lace our e%e( 0sing some otical h%sics$ engineers "no/ /here to lace lenses
and /hat lenses to lace in order to magnif% an image to a desired magnification( +heir designs are
t%icall% closed so the% bloc" out other light from other sources$ "no/n as noise$ so the user can get a clear
icture( Ho/e!er$ astronomers aren1t al/a%s loo"ing for the most magnified image( 2ftentimes$ it is the
clearest image that is the most desired( )hen ma"ing measurements$ a blurr% image leads to large errors$
/hich can ma"e calculations slo% and ossibl% incorrect(
+elescoes$ b% design$ ha!e their o/n sectral efficienc% in regards to light( )hat that means is
that the% are more sensiti!e to different t%es of light than others( 3or e#amle$ our o/n e%es$ /hich are
li"e biological telescoes$ are most efficient in the %ello/ light of the electromagnetic sectrum( +his
4ualit% of telescoes leads into a !ariet% of different telescoes$ each /ith their o/n secific urose( 5%
filtering out other t%es of light or b% designing a telescoe for a secific /a!elength of light$ scientists
ha!e created otical telescoes$ ultra!iolet telescoes$ radio telescoes$ and others( 6otice that our e%es are
onl% able to see through !isual telescoes$ the rest of them re4uire comuters or hotograhic lates to
con!ert the light into something /e can ercei!e(
)hile telescoes come in a !ariet% of different shaes and si&es$ there are t/o t%es that dominate
the mar"et7 refracting telescoes and reflecting telescoes( Each of them has their o/n strengths and
/ea"nesses$ and ser!e different uroses in different situations(
Refracting Telescopes
Refracting telescoes are often the first telescoe an indi!idual thin"s of /hen the% imagine a
telescoe( 8no/n for their s"inn% and long stature$ refracting telescoes are filled /ith multile con!e#
and conca!e lenses that focus the light to a single focal oint at the end of the e%eiece( 5ecause of the
difficult% in creating large lenses that aren-t blemished and because large lenses are !er% hea!%$ refracting
telescoes are limited in si&e$ /ith the largest being about one meter in diameter( 5uilding large refracting
telescoes is imractical /hen there are other$ more ractical otions a!ailable( +hese telescoes are useful
for s%glasses and amateur astronom% since the% are more comact than reflecting telescoes(
Reflecting Telescopes
Reflecting telescoes are the most commonl% used otical design used b% rofessional
astronomers( Reflecting telescoes use mirrors to align the light from the ob'ect in !ie/ to an e%eiece$
/hich focuses the light to %our e%e( +hese telescoes often loo" li"e short$ fat tubes /ith an e%eiece on it(
)hile there are a fe/ !ariations 9li"e the 6e/tonian:$ the all in!ol!e using mirrors to reflect the light and
focus it to the e%eiece( 5ecause olishing mirrors is much easier than finding blemish free lenses$
reflecting telescoes can ha!e mirrors larger than ten meters in diameter(
Charged-coupled Devices
Charged-couled de!ices 9or CC;s: are tin% arra%s of i#els that can gather and transort electric
charges( *n!ented in 1<,< b% )illard 5o%le and .eorge =mith$ these de!ices ha!e become the stale
technolog% in digital imaging( 5% e#osing the CC; to light$ all of the indi!idual i#els gather an electric
charge directl% roortional to the intensit% of the light that falls on the i#el( +o create the electric charge$
the hotoelectric effect 9/here electrons can be "noc"ed out of their orbits b% incoming hotons: is
e#loited(
CC;s ha!e a !er% uni4ue method to ta"e the electric charges held in the i#els and con!ert them
to digital information( 2nce the CC; has been e#osed to light and has gathered light$ the CC; is read% to
begin mo!ing charges( 3irst$ it >dros? the charges in the bottom ro/ of the arra% into an emt% ro/ of
i#els( +hen$ one at a time$ the CC; mo!es the charges into another i#el that then records the charge from
the grid oint( *t then reeats this rocess until all the information stored in the CC; is recorded(
+he image belo/ demonstrates the basic rocedure and structure of charged-couled de!ices( 2ne
thing to notice is that not all of the di!isions bet/een i#els are the same( *n the area /here the dar"er lines
are located$ the di!isions$ /hich are electric otentials$ are much stronger$ to re!ent charges from
>lea"ing? out into other i#els( +he reason /h% all i#els do not ha!e this stronger otential to o!ercome is
that the charges need to be mo!ed around$ and the /ea"er otentials allo/ this to be easier to do in the
intended direction of tra!el( +his comes /ith a cost though( )hen ta"ing images /ith CC;s$ i#els can
become saturated and cannot ta"e in an% more light( )hen this occurs$ the e#cess light can begin to lea"
into the i#els along the !ertical column( +his is "no/n as blooming(
Combination
Combined$ telescoes and CC;s are the most o/erful tool that astronomers ha!e at their disosal
to /ield as the% sift through the hea!ens( 5% utting a CC; /here an obser!er /ould t%icall% ut their
e%e$ the telescoe becomes a camera that can cature ermanent images at a much faster rate than the
hotograhic lates used during most of the 1<00-s(
*n order to ta"e images of !er% faint ob'ects$ e#osure times of the CC; allo/ more light to be
gathered( Astronomers must be careful /ith this though$ because the% do not /ant to saturate desired i#els
such that the information that can be garnered from the data is muddied b% blooming and other detriments
that come from saturated i#els(
5ecause the images are stored digitall%$ it is ossible for astronomers to do some mathematicall%
rocesses /ith them( *n fact$ astronomers can add$ subtract$ and a!erage images together in order to create
a comosite image that can remo!e some of the noise in the image( 3or e#amle$ there are hot i#els
9i#els that are al/a%s >on?: and dead i#els 9i#els that are al/a%s >off?:( *n order to remo!e these i#els
from an image$ astronomers ta"e dar" frames$ /hich are images of a comletel% flat$ blac" surface so the
hot and dead i#els can be identified( +hen$ /hen astronomers ta"e a icture of an ob'ect$ the% can subtract
the misbeha!ing i#els from the image(
Another issue is that other ob'ects could ass in front of the ob'ecti!e of the telescoe during an
e#osure( E#amles of these ob'ects are7 asteroids$ man-made satellites$ and cosmic ra%s 9/hich are
energetic articles that constantl% barrage our lanet$ but normall% 'ust ass through unscathed:( *n order to
remo!e these blemishes$ astronomers ta"e multile images of the same ob'ect( +his allo/s them to later
a!erage the images together to remo!e these strea"s of light left b% un/anted assersb%(
*n astronom%$ CC;s t%icall% onl% roduce blac" and /hite images( +his occurs because the CC;
cannot differentiate bet/een hotons of different /a!elengths( As mentioned before$ telescoes ha!e a
certain sectral efficienc%( CC;s are no different( 5% adding filters that can re!ent all light but a certain
/a!elength from assing through the telescoe into the CC;$ astronomers can create comosite images
that ha!e color b% e#loiting the sectral efficienc% of the filters( )hen astronomers /ant to ma"e colored
images$ the% begin b% ta"ing multile images using different filters$ li"e green$ red$ and blue( +hen$ the%
later add these images together /hich /ill roduce an image that contains color( )hile it-s not a erfect
rocess$ it does create the a/e insiring ictures that the ublic has come to gro/ fond of(
As singular tools$ the telescoe and the charged-couled de!ice ha!e re!olutioni&ed the /orld in
their resecti!e fields( 3irst$ the telescoe brought the uni!erse closer to us$ so /e could get around the
hurdle of our e%esight( 6e#t$ the CC; made digital imaging ossible$ /hich /ould gi!e us digital cameras
and camera hones( Combined$ the% ha!e accelerated the field of astronom% nearl% as fast as the in!ention
of the comuter(