How often do astronomers use telescopes?
The Hale Telescope is used nearly every clear night of the year by a wide variety of astronomers. Individually, they only use telescopes for a few nights a year. In order to make the most of the limited telescope time, astronomers spend weeks preparing observing runs. This includes determining the best order and times to observe target objects and making backup plans for unpredictable weather. After the data have been collected, a great deal of time is spent on analysis. It often takes months or even years to turn the raw observations into scientific results. Astronomers spend most of their time on this analysis and researching others’ work to fit results into a big picture. Some astronomers also develop and build instruments for the community to use. Below you see some astronomers at work. Teaching, 117K Teaching Documenting, 122K Documenting Research building, 145K Building Instruments analyzing, 141K Analyzing Research Which (Dipper) constellation is the largest? Besides the obvious
