Very big telescope11/21/2023 Also unlike many telescopes it has a really long focal length of f/15, in comparison the Anglo Australian Sliding Springs Observatory has a focal ratio of f/3.3 which gives it a much larger field of view. This means it'll be effective from the ultraviolet all the way into the infrared part of the spectrum. Unlike many telescopes it is also going to have a large range of wavelengths that are going to be observable, from 320 nanometers to 28 microns. Like all new telescopes it has adaptive optics which allows it to effectively see through the atmospheric distortion. It is easy to imagine that it would be much cheaper to make nearly 500 relatively small mirrors and to transport them than to make and transport one 30 meter mirror. TMT has 492 mirrors each about 1.44 meters in size and there are a few very good reasons for doing things in this manner. The Thirty Meter Telescope is what you would call a very large telescope but it is composed of many many smaller mirrors. I would also likely think that a telescope of this magnitude would also be able to get a glimpse of the First Stars or at least their bright supernovas, although this may be only be capable of the James Webb Space Telescope or larger telescopes. GMT is expected to be completed by 2018 so only another 6 years to wait, what are we expecting to find?Īccording to the GMT website this telescope is going to be used to study extrasolar planets, the formation of the first galaxies and hopefully help with our understanding of dark matter and dark energy. The Giant Magellan Telescope is going to be comprised of seven 8.4m mirrors which coupled with Adaptive Optics will give this telescope the resolution on the order of 10 times better than what we are currently able to get from the Hubble Space Telescope, this is a big achievement on its own from a ground based telescope. GMT is a $700 million project that is being funded by the U.S, Korea and Australia who has currently put in about 10% of the funding, ultimately this will be a very good investment for all Australian astronomers. GMT is being built atop Las Campanas Peak in Chile at an altitude of 2,550 meters (8,366 feet) above sea level, one of the reasons for this location in particular is that has a fairly stable weather pattern that spends most of the year with clear nights. The Giant Magellan Telescope is currently under construction, the initial blast on the mountain tops of Chile actually happened March 23 this year at the location where the Magellan telescope is going to be built. There are four major telescopes in the works at this stage: Some of the telescopes aren't that much bigger but others could become a new definition in large ground based telescopes for this century. There are a few proposed telescopes in the works and under planning at the moment, very exciting times to look forward to.
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