astronomy

Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope

Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope rather than just read about it. In short: The Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope is a modern 4.1-meter-aperture (13 ft) optical and near-infrared telescope located on Cerro Pachón, Chile, at 2,738 metres (8,983 ft) elevation. It was commissioned in 2003, and is operated by a consortium including the countries of Brazil and Chile, Michigan State University, the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) (part of the National Optical Astrono…

Key takeaways

Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope is a modern 4.1-meter-aperture (13 ft) optical and near-infrared telescope located on Cerro Pachón, Chile, at 2,738 metres (8,983 ft) elevation. It was commissioned in 2003, and is operated by a consortium including the countries of Brazil and Chile, Michigan State University, the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) (part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, NOAO), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Partners have guaranteed shares varying from 10 to 30 percent of the observing time. The telescope uses active optics on its primary and secondary mirrors to attain median image quality 0.7 arcsec at a wavelength of 500 nm. Multiple instruments are available on standby, mounted at unusually high weight-capacity Nasmyth foci and two lower capacity bent-Cassegrain foci. Switching is accomplished within a few minutes by rotating the 45° tertiary mirror. The pointing of this mirror is adjusted at high speed to prevent image blur from vibrations induced by wind-shake of the telescope structure.

Overview Its optical specifications are:

M1 total diameter 4300mm Entrance Pupil Diameter 4100mm Pupil central Obstruction 980mm M1 working f/# 1.6855 (no prime focus is available) Focal plane working f/# 16.625 Effective Focal Length 68176.3mm Gamma ratio (dZ(foc)/dZ(M2)) 100.5 Zero-Vignetting Field Diameter 14.4arcmin Focal Plane Radius of curvature 966.3mm Sag w/r to Maximum Field 10.59mm

Instruments Current (5/2014) instruments are:

UV–optical 16-million pixel imager (SOI, CTIO) near-infrared (1–2.4 μm wavelength) 1-million pixel HgCdTe imager and spectrograph (OSIRIS, Ohio State University/CTIO) UV–optical 16-million pixel imager and spectrograph (Goodman Spectrograph, UNC) near-infrared (1–2.4 μm wavelength) 16-million pixel HgCdTe imager (SPARTAN, MSU) adaptive optics module (SAM, CTIO) Additional facility instruments are being commissioned:

UV–optical 16-million pixel integral-field spectrograph (SIFS, Brazil) User instruments are employed by individual astronomers or teams but not available to all users. US astronomers access the telescope remotely over the Internet 2. Chilean and Brazilian astronomers use their high-speed networks. An on-site operator controls where the telescope points while the remote astronomer controls the instrument and data retrieval. The SOAR telescope dome is a $2 million, 66-foot-diameter (20 m), weatherproof structure weighing over 70 tons.

Gallery

See also List of largest optical reflecting telescopes List of observatories

References

External links SOAR home site Brazil SOAR pages MSU SOAR pages UNC SOAR pages Case History - Structural Adequacy of the Dome Coordinates for Observatories on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachon

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope

In research: Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2003 establishments in Chile, Astronomical observatories in Chile, Buildings and structures in Coquimbo Region, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope in simple terms?

Why does Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope.