Examples for

Observatories & Telescopes

Astronomical observatories can be found all around the globe, often in remote locations at high elevations to minimize the effects of light pollution from urban areas and the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere. Within each observatory, there may be multiple telescopes and instrumentation that change over time. Use Wolfram|Alpha to study the optics within these telescopes, which all behave according to a number of formulas that are dependent on concepts like aperture and focal length to determine the magnification and light-gathering abilities of a given instrument.
Observatories

Query for astronomical observatories by name. The results include the location of the observatory, a current view of the sky from that location and the local sidereal time.

Get information about an observatory:

Greenwich Observatory

Compare observatories:

Auckland Observatory, Tokai Observatory

Do computations with observatory properties:

Mauna Kea observatory/Potsdam Observatory elevation
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Telescopes

Compute the properties of a given telescope, including magnification and light-gathering comparisons between telescopes with different apertures.

Interactively calculate magnifying power:

telescope magnifying power

Compute light-gathering power:

light gathering power 70cm, 20cm
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