Giant pinhole camera in space?

General physics and astronomy discussions not directly related to Celestia
Topic author
dms

Giant pinhole camera in space?

Post #1by dms » 15.10.2004, 03:12

http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2004/293.html

They're considering building a huge pinhole camera in space that can detect planets as small as Earth's moon. Would that work?

eburacum

Post #2by eburacum » 15.10.2004, 12:05

Limitations on this system will include the difficulty of keeping the sail motionless with respect to the camera- it will be susceptible to solar wind and light pressure;
long exposures will be difficult.
and the size of the hole itself will limit the detail that can be seen, I should imagine.

Seb
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telescopes

Post #3by Seb » 23.10.2004, 14:59

I've thought about this very thing before. I don’t think its realist because there isn’t enough light coming from stars, but then putting them through a pin hole, the exposure time would have to be massive. I would expect the resulting images wont be good.

I don’t think it doesn’t matter if there is movement on the camera, as long the movement can be tracked. (somehow)

However; When I think how light travels through space, and how we currently capture it, I do think there are other ways to make telescopes that have yet to be explored.


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