Since telescopes were first used by Galileo in the early seventeenth century, astronomers have dreamed of placing them where Earth’s atmosphere would not get in the way of viewing the universe.
The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) fulfills that dream.
The Hubble Space Telescope, a reflecting telescope, is not the largest telescope made on Earth.
Its amazing clarity comes from its position beyond the distorting interference of Earth’s atmosphere.
Hubble’s earth orbit also allows it to take extremely sharp images with almost no background light.
The HST has a primary mirror that is 7.9 feet (2.4 m) in diameter.
In addition to the telescope unit itself, the Hubble Space Telescope has two cameras, two spectrometers, to break up the components of light, and a photometer, to measure brightness.
Its control system for locating stars uses gyroscopes and special star-tracking and sensor devices.
The Hubble Space Telescope is NASA’s baby, but an international effort went into its construction and outfitting.
In return for the help, other countries get observation time using the HST.
