CFHT Star Trails
Explanation:
High atop a dormant
volcano in
Hawaii, an eye 3.6-meters wide stares at a
faint light on the night sky.
Unlike a
human eye, which
collects light for only a fraction of a second at a time, a telescope such as the
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
(CFHT) can collect light for hours.
Faint sources become visible that were previously
beyond human imagination.
These meticulous observations usually take so long, though, that the
Earth's spin causes the telescope to move under the sky.
This spin is visible in the
above photograph as
star trails in the background.
The CFHT itself must counter-spin to keep on target.
The enormous size of the
CFHT dome can be gauged by the car in the foreground.
The CFHT is one of the smaller telescopes atop
Mauna Kea.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
