![]() Its very high elevation of almost 14,000 feet makes it the premier astronomical site in the northern hemisphere. Dumas told us that “Mauna Kea remains the preferred location for the TMT because of its superb observing conditions, and because of the synergy with other TMT partner facilities already present on the mountain. Universe Today contacted TMT Observatory Scientist Christophe Dumas, PhD., about the possible relocation of the TMT to another site.ĭr. During that process, they identified several possible alternate sites for the telescope, including La Palma in the Canary Islands. The organizations behind the TMT would still like it to be built at Mauna Kea, and a legal process is unfolding around the dispute. The dispute between some of the Hawaiian people and the TMT has been well-documented elsewhere, but the basic complaint about the TMT is that the top of Mauna Kea is sacred land, and they would like the TMT to be built elsewhere. The top of Mauna Kea is a prime site for telescopes, as shown in this image. Mauna Kea is also the site of the westernmost antenna of the Very Long Baseline Array. Mauna Kea is an excellent location, and is the home of several telescopes, most notably the Keck Observatory, the Gemini Telescope, the Subaru Telescope, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The original location for the TMT was Mauna Kea, the 4,200 meter summit in Hawaii. It will allow the TMT to respond to transient phenomena like supernovae when spotted by other telescopes like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. This was one of the initial challenges of the TMT project. This requires a complex computer system to coordinate the science instruments, the mirrors, the active optics, and the adaptive optics. The detailed science case calls for the TMT to acquire a new target within 5 to 10 minutes. Moving the TMT quickly is part of the design of the TMT, because it must respond quickly when something like a supernova is spotted. The TMT’s moving mass will be about 1,420 tonnes. Not just in the size of their mirrors, but in their mass. The world’s Super Telescopes are behemoths. The E-ELT will operate in the optical and infrared wavelengths. It will be smaller than the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which will have a 39 meter primary mirror. The TMT will operate in the near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths. Without active optics, and its sister technology adaptive optics, which compensates for atmospheric disturbance, any telescope larger than about 8 meters would not function properly. By controlling the shape and position of each segment, active optics allows the primary mirror to compensate for changes in wind, temperature, or mechanical stress on the telescope. When it comes to DLSR, the TMT will exceed the Keck by a factor of 3, and will exceed the Hubble by a factor of 10 at some wavelengths.Ĭrucial to the function of large, segmented mirrors like the TMT is active optics. The TMT will more easily distinguish objects that are close to each other. ![]() Diffraction-limited spatial resolution means that when a ‘scope is observing a star or other object, none of the light from that object is scattered by defects in the telescope. When a telescope is pointed at distant objects that appear close together, the light from both can scatter enough to make the two objects appear as one. ![]() Image Courtesy TMT International Observatory An illustration of the segmented primary mirror of the Thirty Meter Telescope. ![]()
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