How it Works Machines
The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) is an optical telescope for astronomy located on 10,700-foot (3,300 m) Mount Graham, in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona, United States. It is a part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. The LBT is currently one of the world's most advanced optical telescopes; using two 8.4 m (330 inch) wide mirrors, with centres 14.4 m apart, it has the same light-gathering ability as an 11.8 m (464 inch) wide single circular telescope and detail of a 22.8 m (897 inch) wide one. Its binary nature make ranking it as superlative somewhat more confusing, overall one of the largest telescopes in the world and in some measure the largest.
In particular, its beam-combined aperture using both mirrors is roughly equivalent to an 11.9 meter telescope. Other very large contemporaneous include the VLT in south America (4x8), the Keck (2x10 m), Geminis (8 m), and the Grand Telescope of the Canaries (10.4 meters). Its mirrors individually are the joint second-largest optical telescope in continental North America, behind the Hobby–Eberly Telescope in West Texas; it is also the largest monolithic, or non-segmented mirror, in an optical telescope. The GTC with 10.4 meters is a bigger mirror overall, but the beam combined aperture of the LBT is excess of this. Strehl ratios of 60–90% in the infrared H band and 95% in the infrared M band have been achieved by the LBT.
The LBT was originally named the "Columbus Project". It is a joint project of these members: the Italian astronomical community represented by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, the University of Arizona, University of Minnesota, University of Notre Dame, University of Virginia, the LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft in Germany (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Landessternwarte in Heidelberg, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn); The Ohio State University; and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement based in Tucson, AZ. The cost was around 100 million Euro.
The telescope design has two 8.4 m (330 inch) mirrors mounted on a common base, hence the name "binocular". LBT takes advantage of active and adaptive optics, provided by Arcetri Observatory. The collecting area is two 8.4 meter aperture mirrors, which works out to about 111 m2 combined.
This area is equivalent to an 11.8-meter (460 in) circular aperture, which would be greater than any other single telescope, but it is not comparable in many respects since the light is collected at a lower diffraction limit and is not combined in the same way. Also, an interferometric mode will be available, with a maximum baseline of 22.8 meters (75 ft) for aperture synthesis imaging observations and a baseline of 15 meters (49 ft) for nulling interferometry. This feature is along one axis with the LBTI instrument at wavelengths of 2.9–13 micrometres, which is the near infrared. More details
In particular, its beam-combined aperture using both mirrors is roughly equivalent to an 11.9 meter telescope. Other very large contemporaneous include the VLT in south America (4x8), the Keck (2x10 m), Geminis (8 m), and the Grand Telescope of the Canaries (10.4 meters). Its mirrors individually are the joint second-largest optical telescope in continental North America, behind the Hobby–Eberly Telescope in West Texas; it is also the largest monolithic, or non-segmented mirror, in an optical telescope. The GTC with 10.4 meters is a bigger mirror overall, but the beam combined aperture of the LBT is excess of this. Strehl ratios of 60–90% in the infrared H band and 95% in the infrared M band have been achieved by the LBT.The LBT was originally named the "Columbus Project". It is a joint project of these members: the Italian astronomical community represented by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, the University of Arizona, University of Minnesota, University of Notre Dame, University of Virginia, the LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft in Germany (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Landessternwarte in Heidelberg, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn); The Ohio State University; and the Research Corporation for Science Advancement based in Tucson, AZ. The cost was around 100 million Euro.
The telescope design has two 8.4 m (330 inch) mirrors mounted on a common base, hence the name "binocular". LBT takes advantage of active and adaptive optics, provided by Arcetri Observatory. The collecting area is two 8.4 meter aperture mirrors, which works out to about 111 m2 combined.
