Telescope in Halkidiki will monitor the “health” of satellites and dangerous asteroids

A telescope in Holomontas, in an ideal spot, away from city lights, with a clear southern horizon, without high humidity and large temperature fluctuations, will monitor the “health” of the satellites in a short time.

In collaboration with other laboratories in Greece and abroad, this telescope will simultaneously monitor, together with other telescopes, if everything is working properly on the satellites or if there is any damage that should be repaired.

After all, having someone monitor the satellites and assess their “state of health” is absolutely necessary because, as the professor of dynamical astronomy at the Physics Department of the AUTH Kleomenis Tsiganis explains to APE-MBE, it is not possible without this to have satellites communications.

“It’s just like controlling air traffic only if you do it for satellites,” he says, pointing out that this is also the reason why the European Union funds its members to set up stations so that there is constant communication coverage. He says that the tests have been done, while in the summer the telescope is expected to be put into full, normal operation.

On the occasion of the recent approval, by the Region of Central Macedonia, of the donation of the telescope for the operation of the observatory in Holomontas of Halkidiki, Mr. Tsiganis explains that “it is an instrument that serves specific operational needs and in this context the participation of the Astronomical Station Holomont along with the National Observatory, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Crete Observatory and the Athens Polytechnic in the national plan to develop the ability to monitor satellite orbits”.

How the first telescope was set up in Holomontas in 2000

After all, the area of ​​Holomontas has been known for years in the astronomical community of the country, since in 2000 the late Astronomy Professor of the AUTH, Yannis Seiradakis, and the current Professor Emeritus of the Physics Department of the Faculty of Science of the AUTH, Stavros Avgoloupis, started the installation there , the first telescope to be housed in a small house, moved on rails and was used by students.

“We saw then that at this specific point the disturbance of the atmosphere and the absorption of light by the atmosphere were at levels ideal for astronomical observations,” Mr. Avgoloupis emphasizes to APE-MPE.

He remembers, in fact, characteristically that night of the Resurrection, 17 years ago, “when for the first time Dimitris Smyrlis (now a professor in England) first observed an exoplanet with a terrestrial telescope. This was so important that they took him to the Canary Islands. After all, the observation was made in Holomontas, in the university forest of AUTH, where the forestry students do their internship and the students of the Physics department went for their first observations in space…”.

Asteroids are also under observation

Mr. Avgoloupis also points out, speaking to APE-MPE, that a part of scientific research is the observation of asteroids. “We believe we are in danger from them and we need to observe those coming, but before they enter the earth’s gravitational field, so we can deflect them. Let’s not forget that the dinosaurs also perished from such a fall 60 million years ago, when the asteroid, which we even found in the Gulf of Mexico, with its fall caused so much dust that the solar radiation reaching the surface was reduced of land, the vegetation on the land decreased and there was not enough food for the large herbivores…’.

RES-EMP

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