Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

LBT Publishes "First Light" Image

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the still-too-much-of-that-air-stuff-in-the-way dept.

FarmKing writes "The Large Binocular Telescope has achieved "first light" and published it's first image of NGC891. The image was taken with one of it's two 8.4 Meter (~655 ft^2) mirrors. When fully operational, LBT will be one of the largest optical telescopes in the world."

2 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. hubble? by Ojuice · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So what are the technical specs. of this telescope compared to the Hubble?

  2. Re:24 million years ago? by jsveiga · · Score: 3, Interesting

    > looking at a picture of the light that left NGC891 24 million years ago. right? wrong?

    Wrong, due to the accelerating expansion of the universe. If the light of something out there 24 million light-years away hits us now, it doesn't mean that this light left the origin 24 million years before.

    It would be true if the universe was static.

    There was a VERY interesting article on Scientific American about common misconceptions about the big bang some months ago
    (stripped-down web version http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0009F0C A-C523-1213-852383414B7F0147&pageNumber=5&catID=2)
      explaining things like that.