How much more light gathering area will SOFIAs telescope have?
The KAO’s telescope is installed in the cabin, in front of the aircraft’s left wing. Its 36 inch wide primary mirror gathers light and reflects it to a second mirror. This mirror focuses the beam onto a third flat mirror which reflects the focused beam into the airplane’s pressurized cabin through an air bearing. The astronomer mounts a detector at the end of the bearing and operates the telescope from inside the cabin. The telescope is isolated from aircraft vibrations and stabilized by gyroscopes and a video tracking system.
