Large binocular telescope

[Adamski]

Was watching "How things work" on Discovery science last night and they had a 10 minute part on the above scope. It is absolutely amazing, the most powerful land based telescope on Earth. the mechanisms for making sure it doesn't lose any crisp images can detect and adjust down to a thousandth of a centimeter. the total mirror width is 8.5m.

[Shibby]

It's certainly an awesome looking telescope! Will have to see if I can get hold of the episode

I believe the Keck pair are bigger though? I think it's a pair of 10m scopes... (However, not mounted together). But if you think that's impressive, google the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which is under construction - a single mirror of 42m!!

[toml42]

I know it's a radio telescope, so not exactly comparable, but china is building a 500m telescope!

[Telrad]

Yes, I read about that new telescope in China here:

China builds super-sized radio telescope - physicsworld.com