World's Largest Telescope Begins Production

JohnnyNapalm writes "The Aggie Daily News is reporting today that the first mirrors have been cast for the world's largest telescope. The result of cooperation from some of the foremost institutions in education and science in the nation, the Giant Magellan Telescope stands to operate at a resolution 10 times larger than the Hubble. The project, set to be constructed in Chile, is slated for completion in 2016."

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Re:Largest Telescope?

[luna69]

For those of you not familiar with why astronomers would place (frickin') lasers onto telescopes, there are multiple reasons.

The primary reason is to provide a "fake star" that can be monitored for distortion, which helps adaptive optics systems counteract atmospheric distortion in the final telescope image/data. In other words, it helps remove the "twinkle" caused by the atmosphere.

The laser at Apache Point, as well as at other locations (see previous message), is used to measure the distance to the moon (which is useful in, among other things, studies looking at the accuracy of general relativity).

The Apache Point laser is capable of measuring the distance to the moon to a millimeter using this device. (think about it: at a telescope, up on a mountain around 10,000 feet, there's probably more 'flex' in the mountain itself!).