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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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 Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:31 pm Post subject: New telescope with ten times the clarity of Hubble |
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When does this fantastic new telescope begin? Actually, it kind of already started two weeks ago. I bet nobody knew that. It'll be fully functional though (both mirrors) in a year.
Here's the first picture:
NGC 891, a galaxy in the Andromeda constellation.
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Large Binoccular Telescope Successfully Achieves First Light
World's Most Powerful Single Telescope Captures First Images of Night Sky
(Tucson, Arizona) --- The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) partners in the U.S.A., Italy and Germany are pleased to announce that they chieved "First Light" on Oct. 12, 2005. These exceptional images were obtained with one of the telescope's two primary mirrors in place and are being released today on the World Wide Web, http://www.lbto.org.
This milestone marks the dawn of a new era in observing the Universe. Upon completion the LBT will peer deeper into space than ever before, and with ten times the clarity of the Hubble Space Telescope. With unparalleled observational capability, astronomers will be able to view planets in distant solar systems, and detect and measure objects dating back to the beginning of time (14 billion years ago).
Located on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona, the $120 million (USD) LBT is a marvel of modern technology. It uses two massive 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) diameter primary mirrors mounted side-by-side to produce a collecting area equivalent to an 11.8-meter (39 foot) circular aperture. Furthermore, the interferometric combination of the light paths of the two primary mirrors will provide a resolution of a 22.8-meter telescope.
The "honeycomb" structured primary mirrors are unique in that they are lighter in weight than conventional solid-glass mirrors. The second primary mirror was recently transported from the University of Arizona to Mount Graham and has been installed. By fall 2006, the LBT will be fully operational with both of its enormous eyes wide open.
The LBT's first light images were taken on 12 October 2005. The target was an edge-on spiral galaxy (type Sb) in the constellation of Andromeda known as NGC891. This galaxy lies at a distance of 24 million light years. NGC891 is of particular interest because the galaxy-wide burst of star formation inferred from X-ray emission is stirring up the gas and dust in its disk, resulting in filaments of obscuring dust extending vertically for hundreds of light-years.
The images were captured through a state-of-the-art camera known as the Large Binocular Camera (LBC), which is mounted high above the primary mirror at the telescope's prime focus. Designed by the Italian partners in the project, the LBC acts like a superb digital camera. Its large array of CCD detectors is fed by a sophisticated six-lens optical system. Scientists can obtain very deep images over a large field of view, which is important since the processes of star formation and faint galaxy evolution can be observed with unmatched efficiency.
Peter A. Strittmatter, president of the LBT Corp., said, "This is a momentous occasion not only for the LBT partners but also for the international astronomical community. These first images far exceed our expectations and provide a glimpse of the unparalleled observational power the LBT will provide. We are extremely excited by the prospect that we can now observe the Universe from the earliest epochs of galaxy formation as well as provide major new capabilities for the study of exo-solar planets and the possibility of life outside our solar system."
John P. Schaefer, chairman of the LBT Corp. Board of Directors and member of the Research Corporation Board of Directors said, "The LBT project is a remarkable scientific achievement made possible through an unprecedented spirit of international cooperation. The LBT has grown from an idea on paper to an international partnership of over 15 institutions from around the world contributing directly to its successful implementation. This achievement is a tribute to what can be done when great minds come together."
First light is the culmination of nearly 20 years of work that began with conceptual designs. Detailed designs were completed in 1994 and construction began on Mount Graham in 1996. The telescope structure was built in Italy while the University of Arizona designed, cast, and polished the twin mirrors. The telescope was transported to Mt. Graham in 2002, and the first mirror arrived in 2003. This primary mirror was mounted and aligned in the telescope in 2004. In 2005, a thin coating of aluminum was applied making it highly reflective and ready for capturing images.
John Hill, Technical Director of the LBT, said, "This has been a long and challenging process and would not have been possible without the support of an outstanding team of partner institutions. From construction of our unique telescope structure to the implementation of massive mirrors, every step has involved great minds using cutting-edge technology. The remarkable success of the LBT is a tribute to the creative efforts of our team members." |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Whats even more amazing is the miracle of Adobe photoshop. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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| I read something about making a telescope using a "gravity lens". The sun's gravity could be used as a lens. The power of a telescope using the sun would let people see continents on planets around other stars. Or something. I should google for this. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 2:55 am Post subject: |
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| It's amazing how long it takes to build one of these suckers. I read somewhere once that the HST took 15 years, from the drawing board to initial operation. I think Mount Palomar took just as long. That's much longer than it takes to build a nuclear power station. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:17 am Post subject: |
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I remember when the Hubble was still being built; I was in elementary and I had a subscription to an astronomy magazine the name of which I can't remember, but I do remember it saying that the mirror on the Hubble was so smooth that if it was widened to the length of the United States that the biggest hill would be two inches high.
One reason it took so long to make, that one. |
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BigBlackEquus
Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Location: Lotte controls Asia with bad chocolate!
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| Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, they have to grind/polish those mirrors down for like 2 years or something.
I keep waiting for the day that Koreans start believing some nut telling them that the Korean 'race' was accidentally deposited here by some alien of higher intelligence than the rest of the world. I'm sure they will say that, after crash-landing, the early Korean aliens were taken hostage by the Japanese, their superior technology destroyed, and they were never fully allowed to develop into their superior selves, due to the Japanese. |
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flakfizer
Joined: 12 Nov 2004
Location: scaling the Cliffs of Insanity with a frayed rope.
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| Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 3:05 am Post subject: |
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| BigBlackEquus wrote: |
Yeah, they have to grind/polish those mirrors down for like 2 years or something.
I keep waiting for the day that Koreans start believing some nut telling them that the Korean 'race' was accidentally deposited here by some alien of higher intelligence than the rest of the world. I'm sure they will say that, after crash-landing, the early Korean aliens were taken hostage by the Japanese, their superior technology destroyed, and they were never fully allowed to develop into their superior selves, due to the Japanese. |
The Manmin "church" (read: cult) may have already asserted about half of those things. They've changed their website, but they used to unabashedly talk of UFOs (which were peopled by pre-Fall "Edenians."
This country is fertile ground for cults. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 4:06 am Post subject: |
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Haha, the wait's almost over!
http://www.discoverypark.com/obstour.html
Fall 2006 baby. The best thing about this telescope is that it's an optical one. Radio, ultraviolet etc. telescopes are okay but they just don't get the average person excited about space like a good picture does. |
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