Discussion: Gemini Pictures Rival Hubble

[Fraser]

SUMMARY: Thanks to its adaptive optics system and new imaging spectrograph, the Gemini observatory in Chile is producing images that rival those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. One image of the Hickson Compact Group 87 (HGC87), a group of galaxies located 400 million light years away in the constellation of Capricornus, looks identical to that taken by Hubble. The seven-metre Gemini South is still being tested, but it's expected to begin scientific operations in August, 2003.


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[jkmccrann]

I think that its great we have Earth based telescopes capable of taking images equal to those achieveable by Hubble, but Hubble has been up there for almost 15 years so one would hope that technology has advanced during that sort of time-frame!

I don't think it detracts at all from the validity and requirement to have Space Based Telescopes. At least initially they'll always be an advance of what we can achieve here on Earth. Depending on where they're positioned of course, they can run pretty much 24/7, which is something an Earth-based telescope simply doesn't have the capability of.