How large can Earth bound telescopes get?

[Guest]

Interesting video. A 39 metre telescope. Too large for grab and go. It is called 'The European extremely large telescope' A bit of an obvious and unimaginative title. 😁 

[JamesF]

17 minutes ago, Grumpy Martian said:

It is called 'The European extremely large telescope' A bit of an obvious and unimaginative title. 😁 

Whoever names these things is having a bit of fun I reckon.  There's already the VLT (very large telescope) and the MMT (multiple mirror telescope), the LBT (large binocular telescope) and now the ELT.  I suspect it's only a matter of time before they get to the ILT (infeasibly large telescope), HLT (humungously large telescope) and MLT (mind-numbingly large telescope) -- the latter also just known as the MT (mahoosive telescope).

James

[JamesF]

Come to think of it, that's probably no more silly than the Liverpool Telescope being in the Canary Islands.  A bit like Leeds Castle being in Kent.

James

[MarkAR]

How about doing a conversion on one of these ready build tubes.

Edited February 23, 2020 by MarkAR

[DaveS]

There was the OWL, the OverWhelmingly Large telescope that ESO proposed with a 100m dia mirror. The ELT is the cutdown version.

Maybe OWL will get build sometime.

[Stu]

9 hours ago, JamesF said:

Whoever names these things is having a bit of fun I reckon.  There's already the VLT (very large telescope) and the MMT (multiple mirror telescope), the LBT (large binocular telescope) and now the ELT.  I suspect it's only a matter of time before they get to the ILT (infeasibly large telescope), HLT (humungously large telescope) and MLT (mind-numbingly large telescope) -- the latter also just known as the MT (mahoosive telescope).

James

Someone got there before you James, with the OWL!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwhelmingly_Large_Telescope

[DAVE AMENDALL]

I think I will name mine The Wet and Windy Telescope........Dave

[barkis]

In this present weather, even an IST. Is of little use. 

Acronym being of course the,Infinitely Small Telescope.       Has a launch date for the James Webb been announced yet by the way?

Ron .

[Gina]

I reckon I have a PST - Pretty Small Telescope - a short lens!! 🤣

[Gina]

Actually, I guess the biggest Earth bound telescope was used to image a black hole.  OK so this was several telescopes but a collection of smaller scopes is often considered a single large one.

[DaveS]

The place for a BIG telescope like the OWL is lunar farside. 1/6 gravity makes supporting the optics much less onerous, plus being away from earthlight. Oh, and vacuum, so no air turbulence (Or CLOUDS!)

[Guest]

On 23/02/2020 at 11:37, barkis said:

In this present weather, even an IST. Is of little use. 

Acronym being of course the,Infinitely Small Telescope.       Has a launch date for the James Webb been announced yet by the way?

Ron .

I doubt that we would ever call The James Webb Telescope 'The WPMF Telescope' 

(when pigs might fly).lol. I guess that it will be launched sometime.