| Q
1 : Why is the Subaru Telescope called Subaru
? |
A 1 : During the planning phase of the new National
Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) telescope, it
was known as the Japan National Large Telescope, or "JNLT."
When construction of the telescope began in 1991, the
NAOJ advertised for a more interesting name for the telescope
in Japan. The name chosen from about 3,500 applications
was "Subaru." "Subaru"
means a Japanese name of the Pleiades.
| Q
2 : What is most significant about the Subaru Telescope? |
A 2 : The role of an astronomical telescope is
to gather faint light from celestial objects using a mirror
(or lens) and direct the concentrated (focused) light
into one or more astronomical instruments. The "primary"
mirror of the Subaru Telescope is made from an ultra-low
thermal expansion glass 8.3 meters in diameter. This is
the largest single-piece mirror in the world. In addition,
the surface mean error of Subaru Telescope's primary mirror
is 12 nm (nm= one billionth of a meter).
(Note that we only use light falling on the inner part
of the mirror, so we say that the Subaru Telescope has
an effective aperture of 8.2 meters.)
| Q
3 : Why do you build the Subaru Telescope at the
summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii? |
A 3 : The requirements for celestial observations
are that the weather is good, the humidity is low, and
the night sky is dark . The summit of Mauna Kea easily
satisfies all these conditions, making it nearly ideal
for astronomical observing.
| Q
4 : I would like to use Subaru images on my personal
web pages. |
A 4 : You can freely use Subaru images on this
web site for personal use. But "personal use"
does not include the use of images on a personal web site
if that web site is open to the general public. You are
not allowed to use Subaru images on your personal web
pages.
| Q
5 : I would like to link my personal web page to
the Subaru web site. |
A 5 : You may only link to a top page http://SubaruTelescope.org/index.html
freely. Please do not directly link to any images on this
web site. Please refer to this
page for the details.
| Q
6 : I would like to visit the Subaru Telescope. |
A 6 : We are happy to announce that we will be
offering guided tours of the telescope on the summit of
Mauna Kea beginning October 1.
>>
For more information
| Q
7 : Where do you control the Subaru Telescope? |
A 7 : We operate the Subaru Telescope from its
control building located right beside the Subaru enclosure
at the summit of Mauna Kea. If people were to stay within
the enclosure, the turbulence created by any heat given
off would have a bad influence on the observation. Therefore,
we do not enter the enclosure when we are observing.
 The
enclosure and control building (left-bottom)
| Q
8 : Can you control the Subaru Telescope from Japan? |
A 8 : Operating of the Subaru Telescope from the
base facility in Hilo, Hawaii has been successfully demonstrated,
though we still do our observing from the summit. In the
future, we plan to control the Subaru Telescope from the
Mitaka campus of the National Astronomical Observatory
in Japan.
|
