THE increased popularity of astronomy as an interest and hobby over recent years has been in large part due to one of mankind’s greatest technological achievements, the Hubble Space Telescope.

Since its launch in 1990, Hubble has been providing us with spectacular images in exquisite detail. These have not just delighted the amateurs among us and inspired many to take up the hobby, but have given professional astronomers and cosmologists a wealth of insight into the history, structure and diversity of the universe.

The telescope was named after Edwin Hubble, who in the late 1920s demonstrated that the Milky Way was not the entire universe, but was in fact just one of billions of galaxies, all of which seemed to be racing away from one another after an event which became known as 'The Big Bang’.

So, why put a telescope in space? In its position 353 miles above the Earth, Hubble uses its 2.4m mirror to get a view of the universe that typically far surpasses that of much larger ground-based telescopes, which look through an atmosphere that can distort and block the light that reaches our planet.

Even the mountain-top telescopes in Chile, Hawaii and the Canary Islands, which can have mirrors as large as 10m across, still suffer from these effects and struggle to match the results of Hubble.

Amongst other things, Hubble’s gaze has helped determine the age of the universe, discover planets outside our solar system, and demonstrate the existence of dark energy. One of the most striking images produced by Hubble came from scientists pointing the telescope at an apparently empty part of the sky and collecting light for almost 12 days.

This 'Ultra Deep Field’ image was of a part of the sky equivalent in size to a grain of sand held on your fingertip at arms length from your eye.

So what did they find in that relatively uninteresting speck of the sky? 10,000 galaxies, like our own Milky Way, each with 10s or 100s of billions of stars, the light from some of which had taken 13 billion years to reach us!

I recently visited the Science museum in London where I saw a replica of the small wooden telescope used by Galileo in 1610 to discover the moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn and the phases of Venus. Humans are a naturally curious bunch and since Galileo first looked at the night sky, astronomers have striven to see more and see further. I wonder what Galileo would have thought about the discoveries Hubble has made four centuries after his first observations?

Sadly, like all good things, Hubble’s time will come to an end as components fail and maintenance costs increase. However, the huge success of the mission means that a successor is already being readied for launch. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will, with another 25 years of technological advances behind it, allow astronomers to extend the work of Hubble enormously.

Tweeddale Astronomical Society is delighted to be joined at its November meeting by Dr Alistair Glasse from the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, who has been involved in the development of sensors for the JWST and who will be speaking about what the new telescope will be able to achieve.

This meeting takes place on Tuesday, November 18 at the Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, starting at 7.30pm. Do join us if you have an interest in Space or the night sky.

You can currently follow the activities of the Society on its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/peeblesastro.

Until next month, look up and 'Clear Skies!’ Dr Tom Johnston Tweeddale Astronomical Society