World's Largest Telescope

What about the proposed ESO 100metre (3900") OWL telescope ?

Steve

"William C. Keel" wrote in message ...
...and I see that
Roger Angel is sort of pushing the idea of making another one for
the South Pole.

It's only astronomically dark at the South Pole from
mid-May to the end of July. What would they do with
such an instrument the rest of the year?

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre
Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte

My guess is that such a telescope would have a sub-millimeter port as well.
So you would go to a radiotelescope mode.

Dan

Laura Halliday wrote:

"William C. Keel" wrote in message ...
...and I see that
Roger Angel is sort of pushing the idea of making another one for
the South Pole.

It's only astronomically dark at the South Pole from
mid-May to the end of July. What would they do with
such an instrument the rest of the year?

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre
Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte

Laura Halliday wrote:

"William C. Keel" wrote in message ...

...and I see that
Roger Angel is sort of pushing the idea of making another one for
the South Pole.


It's only astronomically dark at the South Pole from
mid-May to the end of July. What would they do with
such an instrument the rest of the year?

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre
Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte

I've wondered the same. Another thing is that there your view
is quite limited - just half of the celestial sphere is visible...

- Alex

Laura Halliday wrote:
"William C. Keel" wrote in message ...
...and I see that
Roger Angel is sort of pushing the idea of making another one for
the South Pole.

It's only astronomically dark at the South Pole from
mid-May to the end of July. What would they do with
such an instrument the rest of the year?

As someone else posted, it would be a nontrivial submillimeter
instrument. The main attraction of the site is that the cold,
dry atmosphere above the polar desert allows observations in
a uniquely long near-IR window available nowhere else short of
orbit (something like 2.5 microns). There are still severe issues
with seeing at the site, but there is some evidence that this
problem is limited to low elevations above the snow. However,
it's tough to build a high enough tower there (and capable of
surviving the worst winds) to check this further just now.

And come to think of it, there would be a fair number of interesting
targets observable in the IR in broad daylight, especially if
they can set it up to be usable in the longer windows at 10 microns
or so as well as out in the submm.

Bill Keel