The International space station is not only for conducting experiments in microgravity but it also does a lot of other activities. NASA has sent a telescope to the international space station. This telescope is from Celestron. It is the Celestron CPC 9.25-inch model. This model of the telescope is very popular among astronomers for deep space and planetary viewing.
The international space station is moving at a speed of 8km/s. At such a high speed how can a telescope capture any details of any celestial object? It will not be able to collect enough light if the telescope is moving so fast with the international space station.
What is the purpose of installing a telescope on the ISS?
The main purpose of installing this telescope on the ISS is for earth-related observations, such as disaster analysis and environmental studies called ISERV (International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualisation System). It will be pointing to the earth for earth imaging.
Many countries in the world do not have their own earth observing satellites that observe the changes in the environment which might lead to some disaster. This Telescope helps in assessing the damages and evacuation.
The telescope is in one of the windows of the ISS. The name of the window is destiny. The telescope cost around $2000+ with the Mount and tripod. Without a mount and tripod, just the optical tube assembly of this telescope cost around $1500.
Before installing it on the ISS the telescope was slightly modified. They removed the tripod of the telescope and used a specialized mount to fix the assembly in the Destiny window of the ISS.
As mentioned earlier ISS is moving at a speed of 8 km/s. At this speed, the telescope would not remain steady with the tripod. That’s why the telescope needed a modification to fix it.
The astronauts on the ISS do not work directly with the telescope. The telescope is operated and remote-controlled from the earth. The astronauts only work directly with this telescope when it needs maintenance or repair.
The images clicked by this Telescope provide some crucial information. It provides new data and information from space related to natural disasters, environmental crises, and the increased effects of climate variability on human populations.
This is the main reason the ISS has installed a telescope on board.
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