File:Taming the sky (potw2212a).tif
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Summary
[edit]DescriptionTaming the sky (potw2212a).tif |
English: Powerful laser beams leave Unit Telescope 4 at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Their destination? An upper layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, about 90 kilometres from the ground, rich in sodium atoms.The colour of the lasers is tuned to excite these atoms, making them shine brightly, like stars. Astronomers then use these artificial stars to calculate the blurring effect that Earth’s turbulent atmosphere creates on the light from astronomical objects. A deformable mirror uses this information to correct this blur in real time with a technique known as adaptive optics, which leads to much sharper observations.This telescope, also known as Yepun, is the only one at the VLT equipped with a Laser Guide Star Facility. Each beam is 30 centimetres wide and packs 22 watts of power. For safety reasons, the system is equipped with cameras monitoring the part of the sky occupied by the lasers, so that when an airplane flying by is detected approaching this area, the lasers are promptly switched off. |
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Date | Taken in 2022 | ||
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Author | ESO/A. Ghizzi Panizza (www.albertoghizzipanizza.com) | ||
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Licensing
[edit]This media was created by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Their website states: "Unless specifically noted, the images, videos, and music distributed on the public ESO website, along with the texts of press releases, announcements, pictures of the week, blog posts and captions, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided the credit is clear and visible." To the uploader: You must provide a link (URL) to the original file and the authorship information if available. | |
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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current | 13:52, 20 August 2023 | 6,048 × 4,024 (42.44 MB) | OptimusPrimeBot (talk | contribs) | #Spacemedia - Upload of https://cdn.eso.org/images/original/potw2212a.tif via Commons:Spacemedia |
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Metadata
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Camera manufacturer | NIKON CORPORATION |
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Camera model | NIKON Z 6 |
Author | Alberto Ghizzi Panizza |
Copyright holder | Alberto Ghizzi Panizza |
Exposure time | 13/1 sec (13) |
F-number | f/1.8 |
ISO speed rating | 3,200 |
Date and time of data generation | 23:01, 28 April 2019 |
Lens focal length | 35 mm |
Width | 6,048 px |
Height | 4,024 px |
Bits per component |
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Compression scheme | LZW |
Pixel composition | RGB |
Orientation | Normal |
Number of components | 3 |
Number of rows per strip | 14 |
Horizontal resolution | 300 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 300 dpi |
Data arrangement | chunky format |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop 21.1 (Windows) |
File change date and time | 03:00, 15 January 2021 |
Exposure Program | Manual |
Exif version | 2.31 |
Date and time of digitizing | 23:01, 28 April 2019 |
APEX shutter speed | −3.70044 |
APEX aperture | 1.695994 |
APEX exposure bias | 0.33333333333333 |
Metering mode | Pattern |
Light source | Unknown |
Flash | Flash did not fire |
DateTimeOriginal subseconds | 22 |
Color space | Uncalibrated |
Focal plane X resolution | 1,683.0665283203 |
Focal plane Y resolution | 1,683.0665283203 |
Focal plane resolution unit | 3 |
Sensing method | One-chip color area sensor |
File source | Digital still camera |
Scene type | A directly photographed image |
Custom image processing | Custom process |
Exposure mode | Manual exposure |
White balance | Manual white balance |
Focal length in 35 mm film | 35 mm |
Scene capture type | Standard |
Scene control | High gain up |
Contrast | Normal |
Saturation | Normal |
Sharpness | Normal |
Subject distance range | Unknown |