ESOcast Season 1 Episode 46 Catching Light - Special 50th Anniversary Episode 6 2008
ESOcast 46 is the sixth special episode of this series. It describes how state-of-the-art cameras and spectrographs help ESO’s powerful telescopes collect and analyse the faint light from the distant Universe. Without these instruments, ESO’s eyes on the sky would be blind. Today’s astronomical images are very different from those from the 1960s. Back then, astronomers used large photographic glass plates, which were not very sensitive and hard to handle. Nowadays, ESO’s telescopes use some of the largest and most sensitive electronic detectors in the world. They catch almost every cosmic photon and recover almost every possible bit of information. For instance, the VLT Survey Telescope’s camera — OmegaCAM — has 32 detectors, which team up to produce spectacular images of the Universe, each with an impressive 268 million pixels. But astronomy is not only about taking breathtaking images.
- Released: 2012-08-01
- Runtime: 60 minutes
- Genre: Documentary
- Stars:
- Director:
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1. James Bond at Paranal 2008-10-30
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6. Lightest Exoplanet Found 2009-04-21
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11. New Exoplanets Found 2009-12-11
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16. E-ELT Site Chosen 2010-04-26
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18. Exoplanet Caught on the Move 2010-06-10
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19. Photographers of the Night 2010-07-15
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20. Richest planetary system discovered 2010-08-24
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22. The most distant galaxy ever measured 2010-10-20
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23. A telescope's wire to the world 2010-11-04
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24. First planet of extragalactic origin 2010-11-18
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26. Life and Leisure at Paranal 2011-02-01
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27. An ESO Astronomer at Work 2011-03-18
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28. ESO Hidden Treasures Competition 2011-04-19
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29. Running a Desert Town 2011-05-12
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31. Pandora's Cluster 2011-06-22
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32. Most Distant Quasar Found 2011-06-29
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33. Under Chilean Skies 2011-08-11
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35. Fifty New Exoplanets 2011-09-12
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36. ALMA Opens Its Eyes 2011-10-03
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38. Faraway Eris is Pluto’s twin 2011-10-26
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50. Chile Chill 1 2012-11-15