Advantages of Large Telescopes
Two of the major advantages of
large telescopes are their resolving power and prowess in light gathering.
Since large telescopes are wider than casual telescopes (and hence the name),
the can resolve object much farther away with much greater quality. For
instance, large telescopes resolve lunar cratelets on moon’s surface with
higher precision than do smaller telescopes. Large telescopes are especially
competent in collecting light. Due to their large aperture, they are able to
garner more light which leads into the production of brighter images, helping
astronomers inspecting the images.
Space Telescopes’ Advantages over
Ground-Based Telescopes
Space telescopes have many
advantages over their ground-based counterparts. First of all, they are above
the blurring effect caused by the atmosphere, so the images are resolved at
higher qualities than they would if they were taken from the ground.
Satellite-borne telescopes are also free from light pollution, further
improving the quality of the images taken. However, putting telescopes in space
is laborious and expensive. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to send
telescopes to space not because of the manufacturing costs of the telescopes,
but instead of fuel and spacecraft expenses. After sending the telescopes to
space, space companies also need to ensure that they are operating healthily
there and this costs even more. For example, instalment and maintenance costs
of the Hubble Space Telescope approximate 5 billion dollars, a tremendous
amount.
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