Beneath Chile’s brilliant skies, the ELT grows—an engineering giant ready to capture the secrets of the universe with the largest telescope mirror ever made.
Framed by the golden light of sunset in Chile’s Atacama Desert, this image captures the steady progress on the construction of the European Southern Observatory’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT).
From this vantage point, the ELT’s striking white, tube-shaped altitude structure stands out clearly. Below it, a dense truss-like frame supports the 39-meter (128-foot) primary mirror — the largest telescope mirror ever built.
Light collected by this enormous mirror will reflect upward to a secondary mirror, positioned in the central ring at the top of the structure. From there, the light will travel downward again through the central tower, passing through three additional mirrors before reaching the telescope’s scientific instruments, which will be located off to the side.
The central tower that will hold some of the world’s most sophisticated mirrors is now installed on ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). The tower is 3 stories tall and has to be as rigid and lightweight as possible – a true feat of engineering. The tower will hold 3 of the ELT’s 5 mirrors; they will correct the blur caused by atmospheric turbulence and relay the light to the scientific instruments by the side of the telescope. Credit: ESO
Without a person or familiar object for scale, the size of the structure can be deceptive. In reality, the altitude structure alone stands more than 50 meters (164 feet) tall, and the dome’s roof opening spans 41 meters (135 feet). Climbing from the base of the dome to the top via internal stairs and walkways takes around 30 minutes — a true feat of endurance, and a testament to the telescope’s monumental scale.
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7 Comments
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Astronomers should exercise more, then that climb won’t be so harrowing an experience for them.
They may find a need for another stabilization structure, an outer basket not as high but reaching up to the 12 points on the upper skirt.
The site is at an elevation of 9,993 feet above sea level, making it both a difficult climb or even walking on level ground.