Why are radio telescopes not placed on top of mountains?

Answer 1

they are mostly located on mountains if they are near urban areas so that the telescope will have an unhibated at the solar system. In the next town over from mine there is an obserbatory that is located on the ground because their is very little polution or smog and the galaxies are unimpeded. these telescopes search the ends of our universe noy planets likea home telescope will for us amatuer astrometors.

Answer 2

The Earth's atmosphere provides interference to optical telescopes because the molecules in the air scatter and disrupt light. Many telescopes are placed at high elevation because the atmosphere is thinner and will cause less interference.

Answer 3

Observatories on remote mountain tops:

* expensive to build * hard to access * spoil natural scenery * get struck by lightning * building shakes with buffeting wind

Best place for an observatory is in a desert.

Answer 4

To avoid interference by the Earth's atmosphere. Yet another option that is seriously being considered is to put the telescopes in some sort of airplanes - cheaper than outer space!

Also, because of light pollution.

Answer 5

Only one. Cost

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And maintenance; with a terrestrial telescope, a few guys drive up in a pickup truck to do basic repairs. For orbital telescopes like the Hubble, maintenance requires a space shuttle mission planned years in advance. The last Hubble maintenance mission is done; the Hubble is on its own, and will start to break down in a few years. Eventually, the Hubble will need to be deorbited and crashed into the ocean because the gyros will have failed or it will be running out of maneuvering fuel. And there are only two more space shuttle missions before the end of the program. There is nothing planned after that.

And size; the Keck telescope in Hawai'i is enormous, far larger than the Hubble, far larger than the James Webb Space Telescope will be when it is launched in a few years.

Answer 6

A major obstacle to get around when using telescopes on the surface of the earth is the atmosphere. When you put observatories on the tops of mountains there is a lot less atmosphere then at sea level.

Answer 7

Because they usually don't work as well if you put them in or under the mountains.

High altitude has several advantages from an astronomical point of view. The air is thinner, and there's therefore less atmospheric distortion. If the mountains are tall enough, many times the cloud tops will be below the summit, which is also an advantage. Finally, they tend to be remote, a much bigger advantage now than it used to be before artificial lighting became so commonplace.

Answer 8

Astronomers are people too, and they enjoy entertainment, the company of other people, and everything else that people enjoy. And living at an observatory does have some drawbacks.

1. Higher elevations mean less air pressure and less oxygen.

2. It's COLD.

3. It's lonely.

Many of these problems are being resolved with modern telescopes with cameras rather than the cartoon image of a scientist in a lab coat (more likely, a parka!) with his eve pressed to the objective lens of a telescope. Remote control of the telescope means that the astronomer can live at the university and have a real life instead of freezing in the thin air of the observatory.

Answer 9

To be closer to the stars. Less atmosphere between the telescope and the stars. They are also further away from city lights that can cause a problem as well.

Answer 10

Higher up there is less atmosphere to interfere with the incoming starlight.