SOFIA Makes its First Flight

[Fraser]

If you want clear skies for astronomy, you need to get above the atmosphere. At the top of high mountain is good, space is even better, but that's expensive. ...

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[carlosmartir]

it has been a while...

[antoniseb]

I'm looking forward to this facility being available.

[bigbluestar]

I wonder how they deal with the vibrations and turbulance.

[Hamlet]

I wonder how they deal with the vibrations and turbulance.

The telescope is isolated from the airframe in such a way that the telescope doesn't sense the normal motions and vibrations that would disrupt imaging. See the explanation at the Sofia FAQ page.

[Fraser]

You could envision a fleet of these aircraft, with different equipment payloads swapped in and out. I'd love to see a comparison between SOFIA and other observatories, like Spitzer once it's actually operating. I wonder if there would be an advantage flying above the Arctic or Antarctica.

[Nick4]

To me this dosent seem like it would work at all...i meat the bumps and jitters a plan has seems like it would be very hard to focus on something.