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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Making the Mirror for the World's Largest Telescope

(Jun 27, 2005) Workers at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Mirror Lab have begun pre-firing one of the 8.4 metre mirror segments as part of the construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT). When it's finally completed in 2016, the GMT will be the largest telescope in the world, consisting of 7 of these 8.4 metre mirrors aligned to work as a single mirror 25.6 metres across - with 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope

More here: www.universetoday.com/am/publish/making_mirror_largest_telescope.html?2762005
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Here we go....The big scopes come out. Excellent!... ;D

[Centaur]

Excellent indeed! That would be amazing if it could improve on Hubble's resolving power while remaining in the atmosphere. Although it does not seem to be a rush job. I'll be over 70 before it is done. To what does the "162 ft" refer?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Oops...189 foot mirror.

I want to reserve a peek.

[Centaur]

25.6 meters is 84 feet.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

GMT will be the largest telescope in the world, consisting of 7 of these 8.4 metre, (27 ft), mirrors aligned to work as a single mirror 25.6 metres across

7X 27 = 189 ft.

Will it be a full 189 ft in total, no, but they could spread them out, much like radio telescopes, and get a small paralax going.

Maybe even real 3-D imaging.

[Centaur]

admin said:

GMT will be the largest telescope in the world, consisting of 7 of these 8.4 metre, (27 ft), mirrors aligned to work as a single mirror 25.6 metres across

7X 27 = 189 ft.

Will it be a full 189 ft in total, no, but they could spread them out, much like radio telescopes, and get a small paralax going.

Maybe even real 3-D imaging.

If the 7 components were spread out in a straight line (which they won't be; the article explained the configuration), their total area would be far less that of a singular circular mirror with a diameter equivalent to the length of the aligned array. For example, it takes 9 circles that are 1 meter in diameter to equal the area of 1 circle that is 3 meters in diameter. It's actually the relative areas that matter when comparing telescope mirrors.

BTW, they would have to divide the components into two groups and separate them by a great distance to get any noticeable parallax effect. And this final point is moot, but 7 x 8.4 meters = 193 feet.

[Rocketman]

10 times the resolution of hubble. That should be more than enough to see the landers on the Moon.

[Maddad]

Uh, not quite. Need the next scope generation after this in about 2040 to see moon landers. I'm a bit stunned though. The Hubble shots I've stolen for my website are absolutely incredible. Individual stars as discs. Proplyds cleary visible. The stars in distant galaxies resoved into a sea of individual points of light. With ten times better resolution I'll be able to wath ET brushing his teeth.