Massive Construction Effort Begins For World's Largest Telescope

An anonymous reader writes with this selection from a press release issued by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: "Astronomers have begun to blast 3 million cubic feet of rock from a mountaintop in the Chilean Andes to make room for what will be the world's largest telescope when completed near the end of the decade. The telescope will be located at the Carnegie Institution's Las Campanas Observatory-one of the world's premier astronomical sites, known for its pristine conditions and clear, dark skies. Over the next few months, more than 70 controlled blasts will break up the rock while leaving a solid bedrock foundation for the telescope and its precision scientific instruments."

Comments

It'll be the largest optical telescope, IF...

[Shag]

and only if, it's completed before the (larger) Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii, and the (larger still) European Extremely Large Telescope in Chile.

And even if it is completed before TMT and E-ELT, as soon as either of them is completed, it'll lose the title.

Did I mention both TMT and E-ELT are also targeting completion by the end of the decade? Yup.

So, good luck, GMT!

(And it goes without saying that non-optical radio telescopes, which use dishes instead of mirrors, have long been much larger. And that even submillimeter telescopes, which also use dishes, are working on staying larger, with the 25-meter CCAT planned for Chile later this decade.)

Re:It'll be the largest optical telescope, IF...

[Shag]

Yep, of course. In fact, the telescope I run at my job had "the largest monolithic mirror ever made" from 1999 until 2004 (when Roger Angel started cranking out 8.4-meter ones). Wasn't considered the largest telescope, of course, because segmented 10-meter mirrors of the Keck twins (1992 and 1996) next door to it were larger overall, just segmented.

That said, using the phrase "world's largest" in the headline before the first concrete pour invites comments like mine. ;)

Re:Why not on Nullarbor Plain?

[TapeCutter]

It's only marginally above sea level, so the atmosphere is too thick for proffesionals. It is however a wonderful sight for the unaided eye.