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A comment on Casting a $20M Mirror for the World’s Largest Telescope [video]. Parent comment

Re:Casting a $20M Mirror for the World’s Largest Telescope [... by sohkamyung on Sunday January 07, 2018 @11:02PM (#16094557)
You are right. Based on an image in this article [1], the EELT would be the largest optical telescope, once completed in 2022, two years after the GMT, if the dates are correct.

And in the battle for superlatives, the cancelled OLT would have been the largest of them all.

[1] https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/worlds-largest-telesco...

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Re:Casting a $20M Mirror for the World’s Largest Telescope [... by welterde on Monday January 08, 2018 @09:07AM (#16096765)
The GMT FAQ [1] has 2023 for a partially complete telescope (3-4 of 7 mirrors) - only the future will tell if there will even be a point of time where the GMT actually is the largest (optical) telescope in the world.

And for certain applications the four VLT unit telescopes [2] can already be used as one big telescope [3][4]. Even with 4 mirrors in place the GMT would only have slightly more collection area than the four VLT telescopes combined (8.4m primary mirrors versus 8.2m primary mirrors).

[1] http://www.gmto.org/overview/frequently-asked-questions/ [2] https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/telescopes/ut.htm... [3] https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/telescopes/vlti.h... [4] https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/develop/instruments/espre...

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Re:Casting a $20M Mirror for the World’s Largest Telescope [... by emanreus on Monday January 08, 2018 @06:56AM (#16096152)
The battle for superlatives. Off topic, but I have to say that's such a beautiful way to put it. Masterful use of words.
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Re:Casting a $20M Mirror for the World’s Largest Telescope [... by ceejayoz on Monday January 08, 2018 @08:52AM (#16096682)
I love the way telescopes are named.

Can't wait for the "JFCTABT".

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