Largest telescope gets the go ahead!

[Astorix]

Evening all, just browsing through web and came across this! thought you would be interested. I had watched a programme on it recently on the History channel and done some research, looks like it will change EVERYTHING! apparently 10x more detail than the hubble!

timesofmalta.com - Plans approved for world's biggest telescope

[Astro_Baby]

I thought you were talkimg about my partners agreement for me to buy a new tube

[Astorix]

lol!

[nitram100]

Awesome news!

[TheThing]

I thought you were talkimg about my partners agreement for me to buy a new tube

Can you move it slightly westwards please A-B? You're blocking my views of Jupiter!

[Astro_Baby]

So I guess I am not getting the TAL 250K then - sighs

[DarkerSky]

That's brilliant news. I read about this telescope in an Astronomy Now feature last month. It is likely to be trumped by the 42 meter ELT that is tentatively on the cards to be built around the same time. These big ground based telescopes will herald a golden age of discovery:)

[Astorix]

they certainly will! could you imagine owning something like that! even just to look through it! being able to see planets trillions of miles away like you were looking at saturn!!!!!!! unbelievable!

[Astro_Baby]

The names they pick make me laugh.... Very Large Telescope, Extremely Large Telescope etc - wonder how long it will be before we get the Megadociously Massive Telecope (MMT) or the Unbelievably Large Telescope (ULT) or perhaps the So Big Your Friends Down the Pub Wont Ever Believe it Telescope (SBYFDPWEBIT).

One things for sure the top end astro world could do with a creative director - its no wonder its hard to get the funds off the politicians when you name stuff 'The Large Terelscope' something a bit more jazzy might help.

[Ben Ritchie]

I was at a conference where they were discussing the FBT.

In practical terms it would be nice to have more 8-10m 'scopes, as it's very hard to get time - the VLT is something like 6x oversubscribed after peer review - and we're very far from exhausting what you can do with the current class of telescopes. But it's easier to get funding for the next uber-telescope than another of an existing type...

[DarkerSky]

The names they pick make me laugh.... Very Large Telescope, Extremely Large Telescope etc - wonder how long it will be before we get the Megadociously Massive Telecope (MMT) or the Unbelievably Large Telescope (ULT) or perhaps the So Big Your Friends Down the Pub Wont Ever Believe it Telescope (SBYFDPWEBIT).

One things for sure the top end astro world could do with a creative director - its no wonder its hard to get the funds off the politicians when you name stuff 'The Large Terelscope' something a bit more jazzy might help.

lol ...i know what you mean! I'm almost embarrased to mention what some of these acronyms actually stand for to non-astro friends !

[DarkerSky]

I was at a conference where they were discussing the FBT.

In practical terms it would be nice to have more 8-10m 'scopes, as it's very hard to get time - the VLT is something like 6x oversubscribed after peer review - and we're very far from exhausting what you can do with the current class of telescopes. But it's easier to get funding for the next uber-telescope than another of an existing type...

That's very interesting. I can see why the next gen scopes get the funding. I wonder if private investment is the way to go for 8-10m scopes?

[FraserClarke]

'gets the go ahead' is a maybe a bit premature... but it's an important hurdle (of many) to clear along the way. They still need to find 60% of the money to actually build it, but that's pretty standard at this stage of a telescope project.