Simple Hubble Question

[robnissen]

Is Hubble in use 24 hours/day, i.e., is it in use when it is in daylight. I would think as long as it was shaded from the sun, it could continue to operate, but perhaps it is not used because if sunlight was reflected off of something (space junk?), it might overwhelm the camera. Sorry for the stupid question, but when I googled I couldn't find anything, and I have been wondering about this for a while.

 

[erioladastra]

Yes it is. There are limits on pointing towards bright object but with enough care and willing to do some risk you can do things like the recent imaging of the moon (for future landing sites). Now, it is not in use continuously since you have to run calibrations and you have to move between targets. But for example, if you have a target near the poles you can observe continuously for 24 hours - providing your proposal is worthy enough to get that big of an allocation. Most people get smaller allotments and it is not practical to observe a target that is blocked by the earth, slew to another, and then at rise time, go back to the first. So that is "lost" observing time (but this is when calibrations etc are done).

 

[robnissen]

Thx. That makes sense.