RE: What do you know today that you didn't know yesterday?
June 9, 2023 at 3:44 pm
(This post was last modified: June 9, 2023 at 3:48 pm by Anomalocaris.)
The new 500 meter radio telescope dish in China would seem to have a much larger receiving aperture than the 305m dish of Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico that was sadly destroyed by poor maintenance in 2020.
In reality its receiving aperture is actually slightly smaller at 300m. The reason for the difference is unlike Arecibo telescope, whose dish is rigid, fixed and the entirety is always in play at once, the Chinese scope’s dish is actually flexible and must be deformed by actuators to aim at specific points in the sky.. Unfortunately for any given point of aim only a 300m circle within the 500 m flexible dish can be pulled into the proper parabolic shape for correct focus.
In reality its receiving aperture is actually slightly smaller at 300m. The reason for the difference is unlike Arecibo telescope, whose dish is rigid, fixed and the entirety is always in play at once, the Chinese scope’s dish is actually flexible and must be deformed by actuators to aim at specific points in the sky.. Unfortunately for any given point of aim only a 300m circle within the 500 m flexible dish can be pulled into the proper parabolic shape for correct focus.
