A question about the LBT

[Bilboid]

The news tells me this telescope has 10-times the definition of the Hubble Space telescope, and that it was fully operation earlier on in the year.

How come, then, have I not heard much else in the news and why doesn't their website seem to be loaded with new pictures taken this year?

Am I missing something?

[Reggie]

It would appear that the images from 2005-2007 were testing in mono and in march 07 it went live for binocular mode, it was closed down for maintenance and the monsoon season in july.

http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbto/press_releases.htm

[Astroman]

One fact that's quite often lost on the public is, most of the "images" produced by these large instruments are actually boring spectra that show up as graphs and raw data tables, especially early in their lives. There's just not as many "pretty pictures" taken. Those will come, but only after all the science instruments have been tested and begin to be used.

The monsoons in Arizona are also a huge factor from August to September/October. Today, in fact, we were hit with a huge dust storm that was well over 70 miles across, raising dust over a mile high with wind gusts over 60 mph. You just never know.