Sky Telescope 2013

The team travel to the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands where they take control of some of the world's largest telescopes to view the most spectacular sights in the night sky.

A telescope with a mirror that measures six feet across and that was once the largest in the world can be found in the mountains of the Republic of Karachaeva-Cherkessia. This altazimuth telescope is positioned at an altitude of more than 2,000 metres - a good point from which to research the astrological climate of outer space. The area’s almost perfect atmosphere, the high number of clear nights and the large distance from manufacturing plants are what make it so ideal. It is thanks to these factors that Russian astronomers and scientists from abroad are able to look at and examine the starry sky. What is so special about the six-metre telescope is its Alt-azimuth mount. This mount allows the telescope to move along the horizontal and vertical axes, giving scientists the opportunity to focus more closely on a specific area of the sky to study the galaxies and stars. The telescope is one of the pieces of equipment at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Science, which is also home to the RATAN-600 radio telescope. These tools that are used to study outer space are also called the eyes and ears of the planet Earth.

Universal's UHD three-film collection places a trio of documentaries onto one disc, covering The Grand Canyon, the universe, and tornadoes. Of these, only Grand Canyon Adventure has been previously released to Blu-ray, making 2/3 of this an early UHD format exclusive. Note that, while presented in 2160p resolution, none of the films feature HDR color enhancement. Also of note are 5.1 lossless audio tracks for each film and no object-based sound option. No extras are included. Read on for summaries of each film and picture and sound overviews inside.