Somewhere far away in the endless deserts, where there is no bustle and city lights familiar to us, where mountain peaks support the sky, proud giants stand motionless, their gaze always fixed on the vast starry sky. While some of them are just about to see their first stars, others have been faithfully fulfilling their duty for decades. Now we have to find out where the largest telescope in the world is located, and also get acquainted with the ten most impressive super telescopes in size.

This particular telescope is the largest in the world, as its diameter is 500 meters! FAST is a space observatory launched on September 25, 2016 in China. The main goal of this giant is to closely study the entire vast space and search there for cherished hopes for the existence of alien intelligence.

Characteristics of the largest telescope:

Reflector surface – 4450 triangular panels;

Operating frequency – 70 MHz-3 GHz;

Collection area – 70,000 m3;

Wavelength – 0.3-5.1 GHz;

Focal length – 140 m.

The FAST Observatory is a rather expensive and significant project launched back in 2011. Its budget was 180 million US dollars. The country's authorities have done a lot of work to ensure the correct operation of the telescope, even planning to resettle part of the population within a 5 km radius to improve visibility conditions.

The Arecibo Astronomical Observatory houses one of the most impressive telescopes in size. The official opening took place in 1963. The space observation device with a diameter of 305 meters is located in Puerto Rico, 15 km from the city of the same name. The observatory, which is operated by SRI International, is involved in the construction of radar observations of the solar system of planets, as well as in radio astronomy and the study of other planets.

West Virginia is home to the Green Bank Telescope. This parabolic radio telescope was built over almost 11 years and has a diameter of 328 feet (100 meters). Designed in 2002, the device can be aimed at any point in the sky.

In western Germany there is the Effelsberg radio telescope, which was constructed in 1968-1971 of the twentieth century. Now the rights to operate the device belong to employees of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, located in Bonn-Endenich. The diameter of this radio telescope is 100 meters. It is designed to observe cosmic sources of radio, optical, x-ray and/or gamma radiation that come to Earth in the form of periodic bursts, as well as the formation of stars and distant galaxies.

If the design of an instrument for high-angular-resolution radio astronomy observations is successful, the SKA observatory will have the potential to outperform the largest telescopes currently available by more than 50 times. Its antennas will be able to occupy an area of ​​up to one square kilometer. The design of the project is similar to the ALMA telescope, but in size it is larger than its competitor from Chile.

At the moment, the world has developed two ways to develop these aspects: the construction of 30 telescopes with 200-meter antennas is underway, or the creation of 90 and 150-meter telescopes. But according to the design of scientists, the observatory will have a length of more than 3000 km, and the SKA will be located in two countries: South Africa and Australia. The project price will be about $2 billion, and the cost of the project will be divided between 10 states. Completion of the project is planned in 2020.

In the north-west of the United Kingdom is the Jodrell Bank Observatory, where the Lovell Telescope, which has a diameter of 76 meters, is located. It was designed in the mid-20th century and named after its creator, Bernard Lovell. The list of discoveries using this telescope includes quite a lot of achievements, along with the most important ones, such as proof of the existence of a pulsar and the existence of a stellar core.

This telescope was used on the territory of Ukraine to detect planetoids and space trash, but later, it was given a more serious task. In 2008, on October 9, a signal was sent from the RT-70 telescope to the planet Gliese 581c, the so-called “Super-Earth,” which should reach its limits around 2029. Perhaps we will receive a response signal if intelligent creatures really live on Gliese 581c. The diameter of this telescope is 230 feet (70 meters).

The complex known as the Aventurine Observatory is located in the southwestern United States, in the Mojave Desert. There are three such complexes in the world, two of which are located in other parts of the world: in Madrid and Canberra. The diameter of the telescope is 70 meters, the so-called Mars antenna. Over time, Aventurine was improved in order to obtain more detailed information about asteroids, planets, comets and other celestial bodies. Thanks to the modernization of the telescope, the list of its achievements is growing. Among them is search work on the Moon.

The name of this project is “Thirty Meter Telescope”, since the diameter of its main mirror is 39.3 meters. It is noteworthy that it is only at the design stage, but the E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) project is already under construction. By 2025 it is planned to be completed and launched at full capacity.

This giant with 798 movable mirrors and a 40-meter main mirror will eclipse all telescopes on earth. With its help, completely new perspectives will open up in the study of other planets, especially those located beyond solar system. In addition, with the help of this telescope it will be possible to study the composition of their atmosphere, as well as the sizes of the planets.

In addition to detecting such planets, this telescope will study the cosmos itself, its development and origin, and it will also measure how quickly the Universe is expanding. In addition, the task of the telescope will be to verify and confirm some already existing data and facts, such as constancy over time. Thanks to this project, scientists will be able to find the answer to many previously unknown facts: the origin of planets, their chemical composition, the presence of life forms and even intelligence.

This project has similarities to the Hawaiian Keck telescope, which was once a huge success. They have quite similar characteristics and technologies. The operating principle of these telescopes is that the main mirror is divided into many moving elements, which provide such power and super capabilities. The goal of this project is to study the most distant parts of the Universe, photographs of nascent galaxies, their dynamics and growth.

According to some sources, the project price reaches more than $1 billion. Those wishing to participate in such a large-scale project immediately announced themselves and their desire to partially finance the construction of TMT. They were China and India. A thirty-meter telescope is planned to be built in the Hawaiian Islands, on Mount Mauna Kea, but the Hawaiian government still cannot solve the problem with the indigenous people, as they are against construction on a sacred site. Attempts to reach an agreement with the locals continue, and the successful completion of the construction of the super giant is scheduled for 2022.

The James Webb Telescope is an orbital infrared observatory that should replace the famous Hubble Space Telescope.

This is a very complex mechanism. Work on it has been going on for about 20 years! The James Webb will have a composite mirror 6.5 meters in diameter and cost about $6.8 billion. For comparison, the diameter of the Hubble mirror is “only” 2.4 meters.

Let's see?

1. The James Webb telescope should be placed in a halo orbit at the Lagrange point L2 of the Sun-Earth system. And it's cold in space. Shown here are tests conducted on March 30, 2012, to examine the ability to withstand the cold temperatures of the space. (Photo by Chris Gunn | NASA):

3. Compare with Hubble. Hubble (left) and Webb (right) mirrors on the same scale:

4. Full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope in Austin, Texas, March 8, 2013. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

5. The telescope project is an international collaboration of 17 countries, led by NASA, with significant contributions from the European and Canadian Space Agencies. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

6. Initially, the launch was planned for 2007, but was later postponed to 2014 and 2015. However, the first segment of the mirror was installed on the telescope only at the end of 2015, and the main composite mirror was not fully assembled until February 2016. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

7. The sensitivity of a telescope and its resolution are directly related to the size of the mirror area that collects light from objects. Scientists and engineers have determined that the minimum diameter of the primary mirror must be 6.5 meters in order to measure light from the most distant galaxies.

Simple to make a mirror similar to the Hubble telescope mirror, but bigger size, was unacceptable because its mass would be too large to launch a telescope into space. The team of scientists and engineers needed to find a solution so that the new mirror would have 1/10 the mass of the Hubble telescope mirror per unit area. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

8. Not only here everything becomes more expensive from the initial estimate. Thus, the cost of the James Webb telescope exceeded the original estimates by at least 4 times. The telescope was planned to cost $1.6 billion and be launched in 2011, but according to new estimates, the cost could be $6.8 billion, with the launch not taking place earlier than 2018. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

9. This is a near-infrared spectrograph. It will analyze a range of sources, which will allow it to obtain information about both physical properties of the objects under study (for example, temperature and mass), and about their chemical composition. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

The telescope will make it possible to detect relatively cold exoplanets with a surface temperature of up to 300 K (which is almost equal to the temperature of the Earth’s surface), located further than 12 AU. that is, from their stars, and distant from Earth at a distance of up to 15 light years. More than two dozen stars closest to the Sun will fall into the detailed observation zone. Thanks to James Webb, a real breakthrough in exoplanetology is expected - the capabilities of the telescope will be sufficient not only to detect the exoplanets themselves, but even the satellites and spectral lines of these planets.

11. Engineers test in the chamber. telescope lift system, September 9, 2014. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

12. Research on mirrors, September 29, 2014. The hexagonal shape of the segments was not chosen by chance. It has a high fill factor and has sixth order symmetry. A high fill factor means that the segments fit together without gaps. Thanks to symmetry, the 18 mirror segments can be divided into three groups, in each of which the segment settings are identical. Finally, it is desirable that the mirror has a shape close to circular - to focus the light on the detectors as compactly as possible. An oval mirror, for example, would produce an elongated image, while a square one would send a lot of light from the central area. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

13. Cleaning the mirror with carbon dioxide dry ice. Nobody rubs with rags here. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

14. Chamber A is a giant vacuum test chamber that will simulate outer space during testing of the James Webb Telescope, May 20, 2015. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

17. The size of each of the 18 hexagonal segments of the mirror is 1.32 meters from edge to edge. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

18. The mass of the mirror itself in each segment is 20 kg, and the mass of the entire assembled segment is 40 kg. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

19. A special type of beryllium is used for the mirror of the James Webb telescope. It is a fine powder. The powder is placed in a stainless steel container and pressed into a flat shape. Once the steel container is removed, the beryllium piece is cut in half to make two mirror blanks about 1.3 meters across. Each mirror blank is used to create one segment. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

20. Then the surface of each mirror is ground down to give it a shape close to the calculated one. After this, the mirror is carefully smoothed and polished. This process is repeated until the shape of the mirror segment is close to ideal. Next, the segment is cooled to a temperature of −240 °C, and the dimensions of the segment are measured using a laser interferometer. Then the mirror, taking into account the information received, undergoes final polishing. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

21. Once the segment is processed, the front of the mirror is coated with a thin layer of gold to better reflect infrared radiation in the range of 0.6-29 microns, and the finished segment is re-tested at cryogenic temperatures. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

22. Work on the telescope in November 2016. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

23. NASA completed assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2016 and began testing it. This is a photo from March 5, 2017. At long exposures, the techniques look like ghosts. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

26. The door to the same chamber A from the 14th photograph, in which outer space is simulated. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

28. Current plans call for the telescope to be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket in the spring of 2019. When asked what scientists expect to learn from the new telescope, project lead scientist John Mather said, "Hopefully we'll find something that no one knows anything about." UPD. The James Webb Telescope's launch has been postponed to 2020.(Photo by Chris Gunn).

Arecibo is an astronomical observatory located in Puerto Rico, 15 km from the city of Arecibo, at an altitude of 497 m above sea level. Its radio telescope is the largest in the world and is used for research in radio astronomy, atmospheric physics and radar observations of solar system objects. Also, information from the telescope is processed by the SETI@home project through volunteer computers connected to the Internet. Let us remember that this project is engaged in the search for extraterrestrial civilizations.

Remember 10 years ago there was a film about James Bond - "GoldenEye". It was there that the action took place on this telescope.

Many probably thought that this was a set for a film. And the telescope had already been in operation for 50 years by that time.

Arecibo Observatory is located at an altitude of 497 meters above sea level. Despite the fact that it is located in Puerto Rico, it is used and funded by all sorts of universities and US agencies. The main purpose of the observatory is research in the field of radio astronomy, as well as observation of cosmic bodies. For these purposes, the world's largest radio telescope was built. The diameter of the plate is 304.8 meters.

The depth of the dish (reflector mirror according to science) is 50.9 meters, the total area is 73,000 m2. It is made of 38,778 perforated (perforated) aluminum plates laid on a grid of steel cables.

Suspended above the dish is a massive structure, a mobile irradiator and its guides. It is supported by 18 cables stretched from three support towers.

If you buy an entrance ticket for the excursion, costing $5, you will have the opportunity to climb up to the irradiator through a special gallery or in a lift cage.

Construction of the radio telescope began in 1960, and the observatory was opened on November 1, 1963.

During its existence, the Arecibo radio telescope was distinguished by the discovery of several new space objects (pulsars, the first planets outside our Solar System), the surfaces of the planets of our Solar System were better explored, and also, in 1974, the Arecibo message was sent, in the hope that some extraterrestrial civilization will respond to it. Waiting for you.

During these studies, a powerful radar is turned on and the response of the ionosphere is measured. An antenna this large is necessary because only a small portion of the scattered energy reaches the measurement dish. Today, only a third of the telescope's operating time is devoted to studying the ionosphere, a third to studying galaxies, and the remaining third is devoted to pulsar astronomy.

Arecibo is undoubtedly an excellent choice for searching for new pulsars because the telescope's enormous size makes searches more productive, allowing astronomers to find previously unknown pulsars that were too small to be seen with smaller telescopes. However, such sizes also have their drawbacks. For example, the antenna must remain fixed to the ground due to the inability to control it. As a result, the telescope is able to cover only the sector of the sky that is located directly above it in the path of the earth's rotation. This allows Arecibo to observe a relatively small portion of the sky, compared to most other telescopes, which can cover 75 to 90% of the sky.

The second, third, and fourth largest telescopes that are (or will be) used to study pulsars are, respectively, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) telescope in West Virginia, the Max Planck Institute telescope in Effelsberg, and the NRAO Green Bank Telescope, also in West Virginia. All of them have a diameter of at least 100 m and are fully controllable. A few years ago, the NRAO's 100-meter antenna fell to the ground, and work is now underway to install a better 105-meter telescope.

These are the best telescopes for studying pulsars outside Arecibo's range. Note that Arecibo is three times larger than 100-meter telescopes, which means it covers an area 9 times larger and achieves scientific observations 81 times faster.

However, there are many telescopes smaller than 100 meters in diameter that have also been successfully used to study pulsars. Among them are Parkes in Australia and the 42-meter NRAO telescope.

A large telescope can be replaced by combining several smaller telescopes. These telescopes, or rather networks of telescopes, can cover an area equal to that covered by hundred-meter antennas. One of these networks, created for aperture synthesis, is called Very Large Array. It has 27 antennas, each 25 meters in diameter.

Since 1963, when the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico was completed, the observatory's radio telescope, with a diameter of 305 meters and an area of ​​73,000 square meters, has been the largest radio telescope in the world. But Arecibo may soon lose this status due to the fact that construction of a new Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) has begun in Guizhou province, located in southern China. Upon completion of this telescope, which is scheduled to be completed in 2016, the FAST telescope will be able to “see” space three times deeper and process data ten times faster than the equipment of the Arecibo telescope allows.

The FAST telescope was initially built to participate in the international Square Kilometer Array (SKA) program, which will combine signals from thousands of smaller radio telescope antennas spread over a distance of 3000 km. As is currently known, the SKA telescope will be built in the southern hemisphere, but where exactly, in South Africa or Australia, will be decided later.

Although the proposed FAST telescope project did not become part of the SKA project, the Chinese government gave the project the green light and provided $107.9 million in funding to begin construction of the new telescope. Construction began in March in Guizhou Province, southern China.

Unlike the Arecibo telescope, which has a fixed parabolic system that focuses radio waves, the telescope's FAST cable network and parabolic reflector design system will allow the telescope to change the shape of the reflector surface in real time using an active control system. This will be possible thanks to the presence of 4,400 triangular aluminum sheets, from which a parabolic shape of the reflector is formed and which can be aimed at any point in the night sky.

The use of special modern receiving equipment will give the FAST telescope unprecedentedly high sensitivity and high processing speeds of incoming data. Using the FAST telescope antenna, it will be possible to receive as much weak signals, that it will become possible to “examine” neutral clouds of hydrogen in the Milky Way and other galaxies with its help. And the main tasks that the FAST radio telescope will work on will be the discovery of new pulsars, the search for new bright stars and the search for extraterrestrial life forms.

sources
grandstroy.blogspot.com
relaxic.net
planetseed.com
dailytechinfo.org

March 23rd, 2018

The James Webb Telescope is an orbital infrared observatory that will replace the famous Hubble Space Telescope. The James Webb will have a composite mirror 6.5 meters in diameter and cost about $6.8 billion. For comparison, the diameter of the Hubble mirror is “only” 2.4 meters.

Work on it has been going on for about 20 years! The launch was initially scheduled for 2007, but was later postponed to 2014 and 2015. However, the first segment of the mirror was installed on the telescope only at the end of 2015, and the entire main composite mirror was assembled only in February 2016. Then they announced a launch in 2018, but according to the latest information, the telescope will be launched using an Ariane 5 rocket in the spring of 2019.

Let's see how this unique device was assembled:

The system itself is very complex; it is assembled in stages, checking the performance of many elements and the already assembled structure during each stage. Starting in mid-July, the telescope began to be tested for performance at ultra-low temperatures - from 20 to 40 degrees Kelvin. The operation of the telescope's 18 main mirror sections was tested over several weeks to ensure that they could operate as a single unit. The diameter of the telescope's composite mirror is 6.5 meters.

Later, after everything turned out to be fine, scientists tested the orientation system by emulating the light of a distant star. The telescope was able to detect this light; all optical systems were operating normally. The telescope was then able to locate the “star” by tracking its characteristics and dynamics. Scientists are convinced that the telescope will work quite correctly in space.

The James Webb Telescope should be placed in a halo orbit at the L2 Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system. And it's cold in space. Shown here are tests conducted on March 30, 2012, to examine the ability to withstand the cold temperatures of the space. (Photo by Chris Gunn | NASA):

In 2017, the James Webb telescope was again conducted under extreme conditions. He was placed in a chamber in which the temperature reached only 20 degrees Celsius above absolute zero. In addition, there was no air in this chamber - scientists created a vacuum in order to place the telescope in outer space conditions.

“We are now confident that NASA and the agency's partners have built an excellent telescope and set of scientific instruments,” said Bill Ochs, James Webb Project Manager at Goddard Space Flight Center.

The James Webb will have a composite mirror 6.5 meters in diameter with a collecting surface area of ​​25 m². Is this a lot or a little? (Photo by Chris Gunn):

But that’s not all, the telescope still has to undergo many checks before it is considered fully ready for shipment. Recent tests have shown that the device can operate in a vacuum at ultra-low temperatures. These are the conditions that prevail at the L2 Lagrange point in the Earth-Sun system.

In early February, James Webb will be transported to Houston, where he will be placed on a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy aircraft. On board this giant, the telescope will fly to Los Angeles, where it will be finally assembled with a sun shield installed. Scientists will then check whether the entire system works with such a screen, and whether the device can withstand vibration and stress during flight.

Let's compare with Hubble. Hubble (left) and Webb (right) mirrors on the same scale:

4. Full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope in Austin, Texas, March 8, 2013. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

5. The telescope project is an international collaboration of 17 countries, led by NASA, with significant contributions from the European and Canadian Space Agencies. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

6. Initially, the launch was planned for 2007, but was later postponed to 2014 and 2015. However, the first segment of the mirror was installed on the telescope only at the end of 2015, and the main composite mirror was not fully assembled until February 2016. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

7. The sensitivity of a telescope and its resolution are directly related to the size of the mirror area that collects light from objects. Scientists and engineers have determined that the minimum diameter of the primary mirror must be 6.5 meters in order to measure light from the most distant galaxies.

Simply making a mirror similar to that of the Hubble telescope, but larger, was unacceptable, since its mass would be too large to launch the telescope into space. The team of scientists and engineers needed to find a solution so that the new mirror would have 1/10 the mass of the Hubble telescope mirror per unit area. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

8. Not only here everything becomes more expensive from the initial estimate. Thus, the cost of the James Webb telescope exceeded the original estimates by at least 4 times. It was planned that the telescope would cost $1.6 billion and be launched in 2011, but according to new estimates, the cost could be 6.8 billion, but there is already information about exceeding this limit to 10 billion (Photo by Chris Gunn):

9. This is a near-infrared spectrograph. It will analyze a range of sources, which will provide information about both the physical properties of the objects under study (for example, temperature and mass) and their chemical composition. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

The telescope will make it possible to detect relatively cold exoplanets with a surface temperature of up to 300 K (which is almost equal to the temperature of the Earth’s surface), located further than 12 AU. that is, from their stars, and distant from Earth at a distance of up to 15 light years. More than two dozen stars closest to the Sun will fall into the detailed observation zone. Thanks to James Webb, a real breakthrough in exoplanetology is expected - the capabilities of the telescope will be sufficient not only to detect the exoplanets themselves, but even the satellites and spectral lines of these planets.

11. Engineers test in the chamber. telescope lift system, September 9, 2014. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

12. Research on mirrors, September 29, 2014. The hexagonal shape of the segments was not chosen by chance. It has a high fill factor and has sixth order symmetry. A high fill factor means that the segments fit together without gaps. Thanks to symmetry, the 18 mirror segments can be divided into three groups, in each of which the segment settings are identical. Finally, it is desirable that the mirror has a shape close to circular - to focus the light on the detectors as compactly as possible. An oval mirror, for example, would produce an elongated image, while a square one would send a lot of light from the central area. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

13. Cleaning the mirror with carbon dioxide dry ice. Nobody rubs with rags here. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

14. Chamber A is a giant vacuum test chamber that will simulate outer space during testing of the James Webb Telescope, May 20, 2015. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

17. The size of each of the 18 hexagonal segments of the mirror is 1.32 meters from edge to edge. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

18. The mass of the mirror itself in each segment is 20 kg, and the mass of the entire assembled segment is 40 kg. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

19. A special type of beryllium is used for the mirror of the James Webb telescope. It is a fine powder. The powder is placed in a stainless steel container and pressed into a flat shape. Once the steel container is removed, the beryllium piece is cut in half to make two mirror blanks about 1.3 meters across. Each mirror blank is used to create one segment. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

20. Then the surface of each mirror is ground down to give it a shape close to the calculated one. After this, the mirror is carefully smoothed and polished. This process is repeated until the shape of the mirror segment is close to ideal. Next, the segment is cooled to a temperature of −240 °C, and the dimensions of the segment are measured using a laser interferometer. Then the mirror, taking into account the information received, undergoes final polishing. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

21. Once the segment is processed, the front of the mirror is coated with a thin layer of gold to better reflect infrared radiation in the range of 0.6-29 microns, and the finished segment is re-tested at cryogenic temperatures. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

22. Work on the telescope in November 2016. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

23. NASA completed assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2016 and began testing it. This is a photo from March 5, 2017. At long exposures, the techniques look like ghosts. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

26. The door to the same chamber A from the 14th photograph, in which outer space is simulated. (Photo by Chris Gunn):

28. Current plans call for the telescope to be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket in the spring of 2019. When asked what scientists expect to learn from the new telescope, project lead scientist John Mather said, "Hopefully we'll find something that no one knows anything about." (Photo by Chris Gunn):

James Webb is a very complex system that consists of thousands of individual elements. They form the telescope's mirror and its scientific instruments. As for the latter, these are the following devices:

Near-Infrared Camera;
- A device for working in the mid-range of infrared radiation (Mid-Infrared Instrument);
- Near-Infrared Spectrograph;
- Fine Guidance Sensor/Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph.

It is very important to protect the telescope with a screen that will block it from the Sun. The fact is that it is thanks to this screen that the James Webb will be able to detect even the very faint light of the most distant stars. To deploy the screen, a complex system of 180 different devices and other elements. Its dimensions are 14*21 meters. “It makes us nervous,” admitted the head of the telescope development project.

The main tasks of the telescope, which will replace Hubble, are: detecting the light of the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang, studying the formation and development of galaxies, stars, planetary systems and the origin of life. Webb will also be able to talk about when and where the reionization of the Universe began and what caused it.

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Large Azimuth Telescope (LTA)

Large Azimuth Telescope (BTA)

At the foot of Mount Pastukhov on Mount Semirodniki, the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) installed the Large Azimuthal Telescope. It is also simply called BTA. This one is located at an altitude of 2070 meters above sea level and, according to the principle of operation, is a reflecting telescope. The main mirror of this telescope has a diameter of 605 cm and has a parabolic shape. The focal length of the main mirror is 24 meters. BTA is the largest telescope in Eurasia. Currently, the Special Astrophysical Observatory is the largest Russian astronomical center for ground-based observations.

Returning to the BTA telescope, it is worth mentioning some very impressive figures. For example, the weight of the main mirror of the telescope without taking into account the frame is 42 tons, the mass of the moving part of the telescope is about 650 tons, and the total mass of the entire BTA telescope is about 850 tons! Currently, the BTA telescope has several records relative to other telescopes on ours. Thus, the main mirror of the BTA is the largest in the world in terms of mass, and the BTA dome is the largest astronomical dome in the world!

In search of the next telescope, we go to Spain, to the Canary Islands, and to be more precise, to the island of La Palma. The Grand Telescope of the Canaries (GTC) is located here at an altitude of 2267 meters above sea level. This telescope was built in 2009. Like the BTA telescope, the Grand Canary Telescope (GTC) operates as a reflecting telescope. The main mirror of this telescope has a diameter of 10.4 meters.

The Grand Canary Telescope (GTC) can observe the starry sky in the optical and mid-infrared ranges. Thanks to the Osiris and CanariCam instruments, it can conduct polarimetric, spectrometric and coronagraphic studies of space objects.

Next we go to the African continent, or more precisely, to the Republic of South Africa. Here, on a hilltop, in a semi-desert area near the village of Sutherland, at an altitude of 1798 meters above sea level, the South African Large Telescope (SALT) is located. Like previous telescopes, the South African Large Telescope (SALT) operates as a reflecting telescope. The main mirror of this telescope has a diameter of 11 meters. Interestingly, this telescope is not the largest in the world, however, the South African Large Telescope (SALT) is by far the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere. The main mirror of this telescope is not a solid piece of glass. The main mirror consists of 91 hexagonal elements, each of which has a diameter of 1 meter. To improve image quality, all individual segment mirrors can be adjusted in angle. In this way, the most precise shape is achieved. Today, this technology for constructing primary mirrors (a set of individual movable segments) has become widespread in the construction of large telescopes.

The South African Large Telescope (SALT) was designed to provide spectrometric and visual analysis of radiation emitted by astronomical objects beyond the field of view of telescopes located in the northern hemisphere. Currently, this telescope provides observation of distant and near objects, and also tracks evolution.

It's time to go to the opposite part. Our next destination is Mount Graham, which is located in the southeastern part of Arizona (USA). Here, at an altitude of 3,300 meters, is one of the most technologically advanced and highest-resolution optical telescopes in the world! Meet the Large Binocular Telescope! The name already speaks for itself. This telescope has two main mirrors. The diameter of each mirror is 8.4 meters. As in the simplest binoculars, the mirrors of the Large Binocular Telescope are mounted on a common mount. Thanks to the binocular device, this telescope is equivalent in its aperture to a telescope with a single mirror with a diameter of 11.8 meters, and its resolution is equivalent to a telescope with a single mirror with a diameter of 22.8 meters. Great, isn't it?!

The telescope is part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. This is a joint project between the University of Arizona and the Arcetria Astrophysical Observatory in Florence (Italy). Using its binocular device, the Large Binocular Telescope obtains very detailed images of distant objects, providing necessary observational information for cosmology, extragalactic astronomy, physics of stars and planets, and solving numerous astronomical questions. The telescope saw its first light on October 12, 2005, capturing the object NGC 891 in .

William Keck Telescopes (Keck Observatory)

Now we are going to the famous island of volcanic origin - Hawaii (USA). One of the most famous mountains is Mauna Kea. Here we are greeted by a whole observatory - (Keck Observatory). This observatory is located at an altitude of 4145 meters above sea level. And if the previous large binocular telescope had two main mirrors, then at the Keck Observatory we have two telescopes! Each telescope can operate individually, but the telescopes can also operate together in astronomical interferometer mode. This is possible due to the fact that the Keck I and Keck II telescopes are located at a distance of about 85 meters from each other. When used in this way, they have a resolution equivalent to a telescope with an 85-meter mirror. The total mass of each telescope is approximately 300 tons.

Both the Keck I telescope and the Keck II telescope have primary mirrors that are made according to the Ritchie-Chrétien system. The main mirrors consist of 36 segments, which form a reflective surface with a diameter of 10 meters. Each such segment is equipped with a special support and guidance system, as well as a system that protects the mirrors from deformation. Both telescopes are equipped with adaptive optics to compensate for atmospheric distortion, which allows for higher-quality images. The largest number of exoplanets was discovered at this observatory using a high-resolution spectrometer. The discovery of new ones, the stages of our origin and evolution, is currently being studied by this observatory!

Telescope “Subaru”

Telescope “Subaru”

On Mount Mauna Kea, in addition to the Keck Observatory, we are also greeted by. This observatory is located at an altitude of 4139 meters above sea level. It’s curious, but the name of the telescope is more cosmic than ever! The thing is that Subaru translated from Japanese language means Pleiades! Construction of the telescope began back in 1991 and continued until 1998, and already in 1999 the Subaru telescope began working at full capacity!

Like many famous telescopes in the world, Subaru operates as a reflecting telescope. The main mirror of this telescope has a diameter of 8.2 meters. In 2006, this Subaru telescope used an adaptive optics system with a laser guide star. This made it possible to increase the angular resolution of the telescope by 10 times. The Coronagraphic High Angular Resolution Imaging Spectrograph (CHARIS), mounted on the Subaru telescope, is designed to detect exoplanets, studying their light to determine the size of the planets, as well as the gases that predominate in them.

Now we are going to the state of Texas of the United States of America. The MacDonald Observatory is located here. This observatory is home to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The telescope is named in honor of former Texas Governor Bill Hobby and Robert Eberle, a Pennsylvania philanthropist. The telescope is located at an altitude of 2026 meters above sea level. The telescope was put into operation in 1996. The primary mirror, like on the Keck telescopes, consists of 91 individual segments and has a total diameter of 9.2 meters. Unlike many large telescopes, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope has additional and unique features. One such function can be called object tracking by moving instruments at the focus of the telescope. This provides access to 70-81% of the sky and allows you to track one astronomical object for up to two hours.

The Hobby-Eberle Telescope is widely used to study space, from our solar system to the stars in our galaxy and to study other galaxies. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope is also successfully used to search for exoplanets. Using the low resolution spectrograph, the Hobby-Eberle Telescope is used to identify supernovae to measure the acceleration of the Universe. This telescope also has “ business card", which sets this telescope apart from the rest! There is a tower next to the telescope called the center of curvature of the mirror alignment. This Tower is used to calibrate individual mirror segments.

Very Large Telescope (VLT)

Very Large Telescope (VLT)

And to conclude the story about the largest telescopes in the world, we go to South America, where in the Republic of Chile on the mountain Cerro Paranal is located. Yes Yes! The telescope is called “Very Large Telescope”! The fact is that this telescope consists of 4 telescopes at once, each of which has an aperture diameter of 8.2 meters. Telescopes can work either separately from each other, taking pictures with an hour-long shutter speed, or together, allowing you to increase the resolution for bright objects, as well as to increase the luminosity of faint or very distant objects.

The Very Large Telescope was built by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). This telescope is located at an altitude of 2635 meters above sea level. The Very Large Telescope is capable of observing waves of different ranges - from near ultraviolet to mid-infrared. The presence of an adaptive optics system allows the telescope to almost completely eliminate the influence of atmospheric turbulence in the infrared range. This makes it possible to obtain images in this range that are 4 times clearer than the Hubble telescope. For interferometric observations, four auxiliary 1.8-meter telescopes are used that can move around the main telescopes.

These are the largest telescopes in the world! Telescopes not named include two eight-meter Gemini North and Gemini South telescopes in Hawaii and Chile, owned by the Gemini Observatory, a 5-meter George Hale reflector at the Palomar Observatory, a 4.2-meter alt-azimuth reflector the William Herschel telescope, part of the Isaac Newton group at the Observatory del Roc de los Muchachos (La Palma, Canary Islands), the 3.9-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), located at the Siding Spring Observatory (New South Wales, Australia), the 4-meter Nicholas Mayall optical reflecting telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory, which belongs to the US National Optical Astronomy Observatories, and some others.