How SOFIA works - 747 Observatory

[glend]

Here is a link to how the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy*(SOFIA) works:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-01/sofia-flying-telescope-occultation-chasing-shadow-titan/10635802

Thanks to the ABC for the story about this flight out of Christchurch.

[multiweb]

Cool link. Quite impressive to see the whole rig in its spherical craddle with gyroscopes and all, shaking about in reference to the plane but stable locked on the target.

PS: Uploaded the *.mp4 web page background video here (http://www.astropic.net/astro/TelescopeSTABILIZEwide.mp4). It's 7MB.

[Granada]

Great to see mainstream media promoting astronomy like this. Hopefully it piques the interest of general public

[Saturnine]

Read the article earlier this morning on the ABC News site. Interesting read about what is involved with the technical side of an observing run of SOFIA.

[inline_online]

What a great read. I learned a lot about SOFIA.
I feel even more depressed about my boring office job now:(

[sil]

And yet we have such troubles with computerised setups fixed to the ground. Can't help feeling we're getting the wrong end of the stick somehow.

[AndyG]

That's beautiful. The clip of the scope riding in it's gimbals, staying straight despite any bump, is mechanical poetry.

Thanks for sharing :)

[ChrisV]

That was a great article. And the video - incredible.
I understand how it works but it still floors me how the scope remains stable enough to pick out titan

[multiweb]

:lol: Yeah I was thinking the same thing, then I remembered an earlier post mentioning the cooperation between the military and astrophysicist because they have common goals: tracking targets, "shooting" stuff.