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  1. #1
    Sagan's Avatar Carl Sagan
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    Chilean mountaintop blasted for giant telescope

    Chilean mountaintop blasted for giant telescope
    The Associated Press
    Posted: 06/19/2014 12:39:16 PM PDT# Comments | Updated: about 3 hours ago

    SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Astronomers in Chile are blasting away the top of a mountain to install what they say will be the world's largest optical telescope.

    The 9,800-foot (3,000 meter) Cerro Armazones mountain will be the new home of the European Extremely Large Telescope.

    Thursday's blast is being overseen by officials at the European Southern Observatory in northern Chile.

    Their ground-based telescope has a 128-foot (39-meter) mirror, and the astronomers are calling it "the world's biggest eye on the sky." They say it will help advance the study of planets around other stars, dark matter and supermassive black holes.

    http://www.mercurynews.com/science/c...iant-telescope

    (Short article, no more at link.)

    ~ ~ ~
    World's Biggest Telescope to be Installed Atop Chile's Cerro Armazones
    By Rahul R
    June 19, 2014 13:09 BST



    VFTS 102, shown in the center, rotates more than 300 times faster than the Sun, astronomers found using the Very Large Telescope from the European Southern Observatory.ESO


    The world's biggest telescope is all set to be installed atop the 3,000 metre high Cerro Armazones in Chile after blasting off a significant portion of the mountain's surface.

    The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) project is the brainchild of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a Britain-based organisation.

    According to a Guardian report, the blasting off of the mountain will take place at 2pm local time (7pm BST) on 19 June. This will be followed by month-long operations to clear the rubble after which work for installing the telescope will begin.

    A massive, 2,500 tons of steel is expected to be used in building the E-ELT's most important mirror.

    The world's biggest telescope is all set to be installed atop the 3,000 metre high Cerro Armazones in Chile after blasting off a significant portion of the mountain's surface.

    The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) project is the brainchild of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a Britain-based organisation.

    The E-ELT will aid stargazers and scientists in a big way. "I feel excited. We are opening a highway for the future knowledge of astronomy," Roberto Tamia is quoted as saying by the Guardian.

    More:
    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/worlds-bigg...azones-1453348



    Cerro Armazones Mountain



    This is the installation at Paranal. They are all within the Atacama Desert.
    http://youtu.be/zSgiXGELjbc

    "A still more glorious dawn awaits
    Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
    A morning filled with 400 billion suns
    The rising of the milky way"

    "The sky calls to us
    If we do not destroy ourselves
    We will one day venture to the stars" -Carl Sagan

  2. #2
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    You know, when I see space pictures like that, I can't help thinking how insignificant I am. I happen to believe in a higher power and believe that he made all this. Then I marvel at the magnitude of how much is out there and how I can still have my puny prayers answered. It just boggles the mind.

    Whatever is out there is no small potatoes. Just look at it. Wow!
    The Hokey Pokey IS what it's all about

  3. #3
    kc1895's Avatar KFC Hipster
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    I just happened to be vacationing there for a few months.

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