Canadians drafting plans to build the world's largest telescope

Go Canada.

Canadian scientists who are determined to build the world's largest telescope, 30 metres in diameter, to clear our now fuzzy images of the end of the universe are trying to raise money for the project. They say it will take $750 million and 10 years to build the telescope.

John Halliday, vice-president of B.C. engineering company AMEC, which is spearheading the initiative, was at the Vancouver Board of Trade to pitch the idea Wednesday.

"Funding is still an open door," he said in an interview before addressing the board.

"There are overall, about 60 people working on the project internationally. We've already been through two generations of telescopes that have happened, and we've been in this stage before. We've no doubt it will happen, the question really right now is to make sure we are pushing the state of the art."

While I know ill never be able to look through such a device, its neat that something this large is being built in the country I live in.

Oops. I forgot my links.

Yahoo
CKNW

Vancouver Sun
Canoe.ca
LaSalute.net

The Vancouver Sun is subscription only though.

[edit on 2-11-2005 by Dulcimer]

30 meter thats one big mama Telescope

The European Southern Observatory (ESO), already has concepts for the ESO telescope, dubbed the OverWhelmingly Large Telescope (OWL), call for an instrument with a 109-yard (100-meter) aperture made up of segmented mirrors to peer deep into the universe.

But thats going to be made of many smaller mirrors not a single large one like this Canada one thats darn big for a single piece of glass. I dont know how they can ever get much bigger as single mirrors and still be able to be transported 30m has to be pushing it. Using many smallers ones as a super big one might be the way to go in the future.



www.space.com... 724.html

Would be nice to see our Neighbor Canada do something Extrodianry for the world. I cannot think of anything canada has championed other than the Shuttle Arm .

Not meaning to put Canada down but I cannot seriously think of anything Canada has done that elipses or stands out from the rest of the world accomplishments.

Hehe I do not think I can word this well enough to keep myself outa trouble with Canadians but I do not mean it to be disrespectfull. I mean it to be way to go, about time you did something unique!

Feel free to fill me in on Canadian accomplishments cause I will readily admit ignorance in that area.

X

Originally posted by Xeven
Feel free to fill me in on Canadian accomplishments cause I will readily admit ignorance in that area.

X

to say something off the top of my head the worlds first Oil Well was in Canada in 1958

another great Canadian accomplishment is the invention of hockey

Originally posted by trust_no_one

Originally posted by Xeven
Feel free to fill me in on Canadian accomplishments cause I will readily admit ignorance in that area.

X

to say something off the top of my head the worlds first Oil Well was in Canada in 1958

another great Canadian accomplishment is the invention of hockey

The First modern oil well is drilled in Asia, on the Aspheron Peninsula north-east of Baku, by Russian engineer F.N. Semyenov in 1848

The First oil well in North America is drilled in Ontario, Canada 1858



www.sjgs.com...

Hockey is still all good

Ah we invented insulin, decent healthcare, cheaper electron microscopes, basketball (debate !), celien dion etc.

But this is so off topic !

Originally posted by Dulcimer
But this is so off topic !

Yup, it sure is! Let's get it back ON topic, shall we?

Anyway, that's awesome. Thirty meters is quite, fricking huge!

Shadow...it will not be one piece (the mirror).

The Thirty-Metre Telescope, called TMT, will dwarf existing telescopes and will be housed in an observatory the size of a large stadium. Unlike current telescopes, which have one mirror, this will have 780 mirrors side-by-side acting as one big mirror.

780 mirrors! WOW, thats one hell of an engineering feat, getting all those mirrors to work in flawless harmony.

From what i've read of it...it looks like construction will begin in 2008, meaning it will be done in 2018...cool, just it time to see the astronauts on the moon waiving back at us.

heres some pics of it.
Comparison
rendering of it with space background
Resolution compared to hubble
TMT compared to the (5m) Hale telescope
TMT compared to Hale (wow, look at the size of it compared to the truck)
The finished product...damn thats big
great rendering of the TMT in its dome looking to the heavens

video clip A little video of this mamoth. (quicktime vid)

BTW, Shadow, thanks, I had never heard of the OWL...thats one big son of a bitch! is it a concept from start to finish...or are they actually planning on attempting to build it?
OWL pic

I was thinking how are they going to transport a 30 meter piece of glass? Can something that big be transported on normal roads I mean its not like you can break it down into smaller pieces for transport


O Thanks for the info Murcielago I was going to say I remember seeing one single piece mirror get transported and they had to shut down like both lanes of a highway to transport the thing and it wasnt close to 30 meters


As for OWL I think it might have to be a international effort if they are going to build it since it has a estimated cost of one billion euros. I hope they build that thing it would be sweet. I wouldn't mind some of my tax dollars going to something like that.


Argh with the money we spent in Iraq all ready we could have built a few hundered OWLs

[edit on 3-11-2005 by ShadowXIX]

[edit on 3-11-2005 by ShadowXIX]

thanks for all the related reading Murcielago.

780 mirrors.... meef. Quite the puzzle to match up.

I thought that from a certain diameter on, the resolution didn't improve anymore due to atmospheric disturbances. They must have seriously improved adaptive optics techniques.

www.absoluteastronomy.com...
www.eso.org...

Quite impressive for an optical telescope. I would love to see one as a binocular style. That would greatly increase optical clarity thru noise canceling.... Great achievement though... Bravo....

(as a side note: People often consider Canada a really bad loft appartment over a Great Party... no offence though.... )

how large is the hubble by comparison?

Originally posted by noslenwerd
how large is the hubble by comparison?

The Hubble's primary mirror is 8 feet in diameter,pretty small compared to large land-based telescopes.

wow! so this new canadian telescope is going to be over 10 times its size. Will be amazing to see what the tele. will be able to find

Originally posted by Simon666
I thought that from a certain diameter on, the resolution didn't improve anymore due to atmospheric disturbances. They must have seriously improved adaptive optics techniques.

www.absoluteastronomy.com...
www.eso.org...

They have at that. The new Binocular scope will have 10 times the resolution of Hubble. I cannot wait till this new scope shows us what it can do

Check out the following post for some information on a new binocular scope.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It's very interesting and cutting edge. With a binocular view rather that monocular, it will be able to cancel out most of the atmospheric disturbances.

The only place to go is up.....