Could Galileo ever have imagined this..?

[strongmanmike]

With the site now prepared, the contracts for the dome and telescope construction for the EELT have been signed. The contract covers the design, manufacture, transport, construction, on-site assembly and verification of the dome and telescope structure. With an approximate value of 400 million euros (AU$620,000,000), it is the largest contract ever awarded by ESO and the largest contract ever in ground-based astronomy.

http://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1617b/

Can't wait for first light...imagine the cloudy weather THIS will cause :eyepop: :lol:


Mike

[Ric]

I reckon something close to a nuclear winter in both hemispheres. :lol: with this baby.

[thunderchildobs]

Wonder when the dome cloaking technology will be available for backyard observatories?

[el_draco]

Yes!

[janoskiss]

More info pretty please! As I understand it will cost about $EU1b, and they'd need $EU900m to get it started. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=450jt8LlcnY

[Shiraz]

Exciting - thanks for the heads up Mike.

It is going to be a biggy. The secondary mirror will be 4.2m - which is a little bit bigger than the primary mirror of the AAT.

at 50mm, all the segments will be not much thicker than the mirror in the average 12inch Dob

[strongmanmike]

That's a great photo Ray, really shows the size of this thing huh?...amazing :eyepop:...almost unbelievable really....

Mike

[Shiraz]

yeah, it would probably be a reasonably good mm wave radio dish if they can't get it working in vis/IR :lol:

[el_draco]

I reckon they ought to try public donations. There'd be plenty of astronomers that would chuck in a tenner... :P