Comments on: A swiftly UV galaxy

By: Mr Squid

Mr Squid — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:57:11 +0000

The Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope on Swift (affectionately called UVOT) is a modified Ritchey-Chrétien telescope with a 30 cm primary mirror, a focal ratio of f/12.7, a field of view of 17′ x 17′ and a pixel scale of 0.5″/pixel. It can observe from about 1600 Angstrom to about 6000 Angstrom. It is one of three ultraviolet telescopes in orbit. There are more details at .

By: Kilgore Trout

Kilgore Trout — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:25:14 +0000

Thanks for the explanation’s,
Just to be sure I’m understanding correctly. The haloed spot really is a very bright star, but it looks bigger and brighter than it should because it screws up the camera? Basically. And the streak through it is just a seam from putting the composite pictures together? I would have thought they would be at right angles to the picture, of course maybe they were before the picture was rotated and cropped.
Thanks again everyone, I’m really enjoying this site. Just makes me wish it wasn’t cold and cloudy at night.

By: Allen Thomson

Allen Thomson — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:29:00 +0000

Also for the Pareidolia Files. In the bigger version of the picture there are two eyes, a mouth and an ear in the nucleus.

By: Regner Trampedach

Regner Trampedach — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:28:13 +0000

DenverAstro, 1cm = 10mm (centi = 1/100, milli=1/1000).
Also units cannot be freely capitalized or decapitalized(?!?); 1mm is
1 millimeter, but 1Mm is 1 megameter (mega = 1,000,000 = million)
- that’s a difference of a factor of 10^9 (billion in US lingo).
In the end you do work out the numbers correctly, though,
with 30cm=300mm. That’s a pretty large refractor you have there,
by the way – 127mm… Should be pretty good for M33.
Cheers, Regner Trampedach

By: DenverAstro

DenverAstro — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:06:26 +0000

Let’s see…a CM is 100 times larger than a MM, right? My refractor is 127mm which works out to about 5 inches, 300mm would then be about 12 inches in aperture, right? What kind of optics does this scope have and what is its focal length? This also says alot about what a telescope can do as you know better than I, Phil. I’m just curious here. I didn’t know that SWIFT had a scope like that on board. This is really cool, thanks for the post.

By: John Paradox

John Paradox — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:22:06 +0000

The Andromeda Galaxy is male?!
Here I’ve been calling it “she” the whole time… I’m so embarrassed!

Obviously M33 is female, since it (she?) is making more stars.

J/P=?

By: Jeffersonian

Jeffersonian — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:39:01 +0000

“For a fun game, think of things that CCD can stand for in the context of “streaking”.

Ha! Love it.