07-27-2016, 05:30 PM
It makes a very pleasant change that I'm not the one who corrects all of pahoated's misconceptions about astronomy, telescopes and observatories!
The only thing I'll add is that both modern space and ground-based telescopes work the same way when it comes to "scanning" targets. Both use software and human decisions to decide what to observe, and space-based telescopes generally require much more acquisition time compared to those on the ground. For example, at best the Hubble takes 3 minutes to acquire a new field for basic imaging, but much longer for other modes. UKIRT takes a few seconds.
The only thing I'll add is that both modern space and ground-based telescopes work the same way when it comes to "scanning" targets. Both use software and human decisions to decide what to observe, and space-based telescopes generally require much more acquisition time compared to those on the ground. For example, at best the Hubble takes 3 minutes to acquire a new field for basic imaging, but much longer for other modes. UKIRT takes a few seconds.