#wfpc2

[somethingsforyoutolookat]

ESO 325-11 by Judy Schmidt Via Flickr: A dwarf galaxy just to mix things up for a moment. The data at the upper right corner is much coarser than the rest. Worked out better than I thought it would, though. Completing HST's Local Volume Legacy A Snapshot Survey of Probable Nearby Galaxies Red: WFPC2 F814W data from proposals 11986 and 8601 Green: Pseudo Blue: WFPC2 F606W data from proposals 11986 and 8601 North is 7.8° clockwise from up.

[back-to-the-stars-again]

HST/WFPC2 Image of Jupiter and Ganymede, 2007.

Credit: NASA, ESA and E Karkoschka

[spacettf]

ESO 185-13 by geckzilla on Flickr.

[startswithabang]

The camera that changed the Universe

"So don’t just have a look back at the amazing science we’ve done and how the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our view of the Universe forever; look forward to what we’re doing now and what new wonders might be in store.

The Universe is all ours. All we need to do is look."

As the Hubble Space Telescope gets set to celebrate the 25th anniversary of opening its eyes to the Universe, it's important to realize that the first four years of operations were kind of a disaster. It wasn't until they corrected the flawed primary mirror and installed an upgraded camera — the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) — that the Universe truly came into focus. From 1993 to 2009, this workhorse camera literally changed our view of the Universe, and we're pushing even past those limits today. The ultimate #tbt.

[ultraviolet-divergence]

I visited the Air and Space Museum today. Above is their scale mockup of Hubble. Below is Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. It’s the actual instrument, returned to Earth after it was replaced.

Something like half the data I’m working with this summer was produced by that camera. The Hubble mockup’s impressive, but seeing WFPC2 was something else.

[astronomynerd-blog]

Mars 2001 Opposition by Hubble Heritage on Flickr.

[viddyspace]

Trifid Nebula M20 by Hubble Heritage on Flickr.

[viddyspace]

Interacting Galaxies Arp 194 by Hubble Heritage on Flickr.