JUN 01, 1987
Astronomical advances often depend upon technological advances. In recent years charge‐coupled‐device detectors on existing telescopes have reached photon efficiencies approaching 100%, significantly better than those of photographic detectors. (See PHYSICS TODAY, March, page 19.) “The 5‐meter Hale telescope with a charge‐coupled‐device detector is equivalent to a 50‐meter diameter telescope equipped with 1948 photographic plates,” says Peter Waddell (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow), who is trying to develop large membrane mirrors that may eventually be used in space. “Detectro sensitity cannot go much further, which is why astronomers are looking once again for larger telescopes.”
© 1987. American Institute of Physics
