Mizusawa Station 20m Radio Telescopes and Orion
Night Scape Photograph・
| Date | 7:59pm December 2 4th, 2013 (JST) |
|---|---|
| Camera | Nikon D800E |
| Lens | Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED |
| Exposure | F3.2 ISO1600, 10 seconds |
| Location | Mizusawa Station, Oshu City, Iwate Prefecture |
| Photographer | Makoto Shizugami (NAOJ Mizusawa VLBI Observatory) |
| Image Processing | Makoto Shizugami (NAOJ Mizusawa VLBI Observatory) |
| Copyright | National Astronomical Observatory of Japan |
This picture shows the VERA 20M Radio Telescope and the 10m radio telescope at the Mizusawa Station in Oshu City, Iwate Prefecture, against the background of the eastern sky during the winter of 2013. The representative winter constellations Orion and Gemini can be seen along with Jupiter.
As part of a project to meticulously map the 3-dimensional structure of the Milky Way Galaxy, VERA has established 20m diameter radio telescopes at four locations throughout Japan and now conducts observations day and night.
The VERA Mizusawa Station is one of those four. It is located at NAOJ’s Mizusawa Campus. Mizusawa Campus is the command center for the VERA project. It is where the central network control room for all 4 radio telescopes is located.
The light purple area visible in between the three stars of Orion’s scabbard is the Orion Nebula. In 2008, VERA conducted meticulous measurements of the distance to the Orion Nebula, and found that it is 1360 light-years away.
(Author: Makoto Shizugami , Mizusawa VLBI Observatory, NAOJ)