Where would be the best location to put such a telescope?

A team of astronomers from Canada, China, and Australia have identified a part of Antarctica as the ideal place to put observational telescopes.

What is the perfect place for a giant telescope?

University of British Columbia. “Astronomers pinpoint the best place on Earth for a telescope: High on a frigid Antarctic plateau.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 July 2020.

Why is location important when building a telescope?

Siting telescopes at altitudes of approximately 2000 m above sea level provides a number of advantages for astronomical observations. It places the telescope above a significant fraction of the Earth’s atmosphere, reducing the thickness of air that sources are observed through.

Where are most telescopes located and why?

Almost all of the world’s finest ground-based observatories are located on mountains, for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, starlight appears less distorted in the thin atmosphere on mountaintops.

Why are telescopes built near the equator?

A telescope placed at the equator is able to see over three quarters of the objects in the sky on any given night. We have to be far from cities, at a location that has a high altitude and good weather most of the time, and that’s close to or on the equator.

What makes a good telescope?

The key spec for any telescope is its aperture, or the diameter of its lens or mirror. The bigger the better because a bigger aperture can collect more light and distant objects appear brighter. But this comes at a price, and bigger telescopes are also much less portable.

Why are telescopes located in remote places?

Minimizing the effect of the atmosphere on observations using telescopes makes a huge difference to the quality of the observations. These remote locations minimize the twinkling, because the atmosphere is thinner in these spots.

Why are telescopes located in uninhabited places on mountains?

Optical telescopes are located in uninhabited places on mountains in order to avoid the distortion of starlight caused due to the atmosphere. This distortion interrupts the observation causing poor sight, reddening and addition of several absorption lines to the spectra.

Why are these telescopes located in mountainous areas far away from cities?

The reason large telescopes are built on tall mountains or put in space is to get away from the distortion of starlight due to the atmosphere. Because of the elevation, the telescopes are above most of the water vapor in the atmosphere, so infrared astronomy can be done.