The Hubble telescope first rocked our universe 30 years ago | The Sky Guy – Tallahassee Democrat

Ken Kopczynski, The Sky Guy Published 3:47 p.m. ET May 4, 2020

The Hubble space telescope was the first such device placed in space to orbit the Earth, a great leap forward toward our understanding of the cosmos and revolutionized astronomy.(Photo: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons)

Last month was the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). It is named for the pioneering astronomer Edwin Hubble who discovered that galaxies were not part of the Milky Way itself but island universes of their own.

Shortly after the HST went into operation on April 24, 1990, it was determined there was something wrong with the mirror. A defect caused the images to be blurry but that didnt stop NASA from using the telescope.

In December 1993 a servicing mission corrected the mirror defect and the blurring was eliminated. Check out this link for a press conference with Senator Mikulski and NASA administrators (www.c-span.org/video/?53735-1/hubble-space-telescope). HST was about to rock the universe.

In July 1994 Hubble captured comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaking up and smashing into Jupiter and in November HST scientists released images of the surface of Titan, a moon of Saturn.

Dave Granlund editorial cartoon(Photo: USA toDAY Network)

One of the most iconic images from Hubble was the Pillars of Creation showing new born stars coming out of dust cocoons taken in November 1995.

My favorite, mind-blowing image is the Ultra Deep Field released in January 1996. NASA had the Hubble focus on a part of sky devoid of many stars in an area the size of a grain of sand held out at arms length. The camera recorded over 10 straight days. When the images were processed, over 1,500 galaxies were found.

The Eagle Nebula's 'Pillars of Creation.' The dust and gas in the pillars is seared by the intense radiation from young stars and eroded by strong winds from massive nearby stars.(Photo: NASA via AP)

Imagine how many grains of sand held out at arms length it would take the cover the whole sky?

You can view the timeline of the HST at this link: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-history-timeline.

There was at least one downside to the Hubble. The public now expects to see images like from the Hubble when they looked through a telescope. Dont I wish!

Morning sky: Three planets continue to dominate the morning sky: (west to east) Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. As the month begins, Jupiter (the brightest of the three) and Saturn are relatively close together. Both rise around 1:30 in the morning. By the end of the month they will rise before mid-night. Mars doesnt rise until 2-3 am.

Evening sky: The brilliant planet Venus is the brightest object (beside the Sun and the Moon) in the west setting over three hours after sunset as May begins but setting only half-an-hour after by the end of the month. Mercury joins Venus in the evening sky around mid-May.

Due to the coronavirus there will be no public viewings scheduled in May.

4th - 5th: Eta Aquariids meteor shower peaks. Debris from Halleys Comet produce this event. Best viewed in the early morning.

12th: Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn form a triangle in the morning sky.

14th: Moon below right of Mars in the morning sky.

15th: Moon below left of Mars in the morning sky.

18th: TAS monthly meeting is cancelled.

21st: Mercury and Venus conjunction they will be less than a full Moon apart.

23rd: Thin crescent Moon below Venus.

24th: Thin crescent Moon above left of Mercury.

Check out TASs events calendar at http://www.stargazers.org

Ken Kopczynski is president of the Tallahassee Astronomical Society, a local group of amateur astronomers.

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The Hubble telescope first rocked our universe 30 years ago | The Sky Guy - Tallahassee Democrat