Question 10

Two telescopes, $P$ and $Q$ , are designed to observe cosmic sources in different bands of the electromagnetic spectrum:

Telescope $P$ is an orbital ultraviolet (UV) reflecting telescope with a primary mirror diameter $mD_P = 2.5\text{ m}$ , operating at an observing wavelength of $nm\lambda_P = 200\text{ nm}$ .
Telescope $Q$ is a ground-based single-dish radio telescope with a dish diameter of $mD_Q = 75.0\text{ m}$ , operating at an observing wavelength of $cm\lambda_Q = 3.0\text{ cm}$ .

Perform the following analyses:

Calculate the ratio of the collecting power of Telescope $Q$ to Telescope $P$ .

Calculate the minimum angular resolution (using $θ≈λD\theta \approx \frac{\lambda}{D}$ ) for both telescopes, and determine which telescope can resolve finer spatial details.

Contrast their structural design and positioning by stating one similarity in their structural design and explaining one difference in their positioning requirements.