Schmidt camera
- noun
- Specialized
:
cámara Schmidt
- Our observatory decided to invest in a Schmidt camera to enhance the quality of our celestial photographs.
- inch Schmidt camera
- 8-inch Schmidt camera
- f/2 Schmidt camera
Examples
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By 1930, he had produced, tested, and demonstrated his first Schmidt camera.
Academic text (2002) -
In 1951, the astrograph was moved to Tonantzintla, Puebla, about a hundred kilometers east of Mexico City, the site of an observatory then equipped with one of the largest Schmidt cameras in the world.
Academic text (1994) -
Right photo: Bernhard Schmidt (left), the inventor of the Schmidt camera, and Walter Baade, during an eclipse expedition to the Philippines in 1929.
Academic text (2002) -
Discovered by the IRAS satellite from space and by Malcolm Hartley, using a large wide-angle Schmidt camera in Australia, this comet was supposed to be a faint fifteenth magnitude, far too faint for my telescope.
Academic text (1994) -
The astronomer captured stunning images of the night sky using his new Schmidt camera.
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With its advanced design, the Schmidt camera allows for wide-field astronomical photography with minimal distortion.
Synonyms
A telescope with a mirror and a special curved glass that takes clear photos of wide areas of the sky
A telescope for taking pictures of the night sky
Surface Forms
Morphology
Schmidt + camera
This is an eponymous construction (proper name + camera), so a B1 learner who knows 'camera' will reasonably infer it is a kind of photographic/optical device named after Schmidt. However, the specific technical sense (a reflecting telescope with a correcting plate for wide-field astrophotography) is specialized and not derivable from the constituents, so the meaning is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Schmidt camera is named after its inventor, Bernhard Schmidt, who built a telescope that worked like a camera. He put a thin glass plate at the front so it could take wide, clear pictures of the night sky, and that is why the name links Schmidt with 'camera' meaning 'a device for taking photos'.
