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Large Binocular Telescope Information

The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT, originally named the Columbus Project) is located on 10,700-foot Mount Graham in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona and is a part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. The LBT is one of the world's highest resolution and most technologically advanced optical telescopes.[3]

In the summer of 2010 the LBT achieved a major breakthrough and ushered in a new era of ground based astronomy. [4] [5] Using one 8.4 m side, it surpassed Hubble sharpness (at certain light wavelengths) using second generation adaptive optics that boosted the Strehl ratio to 60-80% rather than the 20-30% of older adaptive optic systems. [6] [5] Without adaptive optics ground based telescopes have Strehl ratios of less than 1%. [6]

Contents

Project

LBT is a joint project of these members: the Italian astronomical community (represented by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, INAF); the University of Arizona; University of Minnesota,[7] University of Notre Dame,[7] University of Virginia,[7] the LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft in Germany (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Landessternwarte in Heidelberg, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam (AIP), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn); The Ohio State University; Research Corporation in Tucson.

The telescope design has two 8.4-meter (28 ft) mirrors mounted on a common base, hence the name "binocular".[3] LBT takes advantage of active and adaptive optics, provided by Arcetri Observatory. The collecting area is two 8.4 meter aperture mirrors, which works out to about 111m2 combined. This area is equivalent to an 11.8 meters (39 ft) circular aperture, which would be greater than any other single telescope, but it is not comparable in many respects since the light is collected at a lower diffraction limit and is not combined in the same way. Also, an interferometric mode will be available, with a maximum baseline of 22.8 meters (75 ft) for aperture synthesis imaging observations and a baseline of 15 meters (49 ft) for nulling interferometry. This feature is along one axis with the LBTI instrument at wavelengths of of 3.5 - 13 microns, which is the near infrared. [8]

Ecological Controversy

The choice of location sparked considerable local controversy, both from the San Carlos Apache Tribe, who claimed the mountain is sacred, and from environmentalists who contended that the observatory would cause the demise of an endangered subspecies of the American Red Squirrel, the Mount Graham Red Squirrel. Environmentalists and members of the tribe filed some 40 lawsuits—eight of which ended up before a federal appeals court—but the project ultimately prevailed after an act of the United States Congress.

The telescope and mountain observatory survived two major forest fires in eight years, the more recent in the summer of 2004. Likewise the squirrels continue to survive, though experts believe their numbers fluctuate dependent upon nut harvest without regard to the observatory.[9][10]

First light

The telescope was dedicated in October 2004 and saw first light with a single primary mirror on October 12, 2005 which viewed NGC 891.[11][12] The second primary mirror was installed in January 2006 and became fully operational in January 2008.[3]

The first binocular light images show three false-color renditions of the spiral galaxy NGC 2770. The galaxy is 88 million light years from our Milky Way, a relatively close neighbor. The galaxy has a flat disk of stars and glowing gas tipped slightly toward our line of sight.

The first image taken combined ultraviolet and green light, and emphasizes the clumpy regions of newly formed hot stars in the spiral arms. The second image combined two deep red colors to highlight the smoother distribution of older, cooler stars. The third image was a composite of ultraviolet, green and deep red light and shows the detailed structure of hot, moderate and cool stars in the galaxy. The cameras and images were produced by the Large Binocular Camera team, led by Emanuele Giallongo at the Rome Astrophysical Observatory.

In binocular aperture synthesis mode LBT will have a light-collecting area of 111 m², equivalent to a single 11.8-meter (39 ft) surface and will combine light to produce the image sharpness equivalent to a single 22.8-meter (75 ft) telescope. However, this requires a beam combiner that was tested in 2008, but has not been a part of regular operations. [13] It can take images with one side at 8.4 m aperture, or take two images of the same object using different instruments on each side of the telescope.

"To have a fully functioning binocular telescope is not only a time for celebration here at LBT, but also for the entire astronomy community," UA Steward Observatory Director, Regents' Professor and LBT Corp. President Peter A. Strittmatter said. "The images that this telescope will produce will be like none seen before. The power and clarity of this machine is in a class of its own. It will provide unmatched ability to peer into history, seeing the birth of the universe."

First Light Adaptive Optics system (FLAO)

In June 2010, a new adaptive optics upgrade was added to the LBT, allowing image quality three times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope at certain wavelenths using one of the LBT's two 8.4 m mirrors. The adaptive optics system is more advanced than older AO systems. [14] It achieved Strehl ratios up to 84% and between 60% to 80% regularly during early use [15] Adaptive optics will later be added to the second mirror and the light of the two will be combined, at which time the observatory anticipates that the LBT will achieve image sharpness ten times that of the Hubble[16] Without adaptive optics, ground based telescopes have Strehl ratios of less than 1% compared to perfect image quality which would be 100%. [6] Prior adaptive optic systems have typically boosted this to 30-40% [6]

In the media

The telescope has also made appearances on an episode of the Discovery Channel TV show Really Big Things, and the BBC program The Sky At Night. The BBC Radio 4 radio documentary "The New Galileos" covered the LBT and the JWST.[17]

Discoveries

LBT, with the XMM-Newton was used to discover a galaxy cluster 2XMM J0830 in 2008, over 7 billion light years away from Earth.[18] In 2007 the LBT detected a 26th magnitude afterglow from the gamma ray burst GRB 070125. [19]

LBT consortium

Partners in the LBT project [20]

Additional photos

The LBT on 26/11/2007

LBT at dusk on 26/11/2007

LBT at dusk on 26/11/2007 after having rotated in azimuth

The azimuth track on which the enclosure rotates

Altitude track with people for scale

One of the LBT's two mirrors

Other MGIO facilities

See also

References

  1. ^ LBT 2010 Brochure
  2. ^ Large Binocular Telescope Corporation (2008-02-28). "Large Binocular Telescope Achieves First Binocular Light". Press release. http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbto/firstbinocularlight_press_release.htm.
  3. ^ a b c "Giant telescope opens both eyes". news.bbc.co.uk. 2008-03-06. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7282385.stm. Retrieved 2008-03-06.
  4. ^ http://www.physorg.com/news195838118.html
  5. ^ a b http://spie.org/x40969.xml?ArticleID=x40969 "Sharper than Hubble: Large Binocular Telescope achieves major breakthrough" 18 June 2010 Max Planck Society
  6. ^ a b c d http://www.mpia.de/Public/menu_q2.php?Aktuelles/PR/2010/PR100615/PR_100615_en.htm
  7. ^ a b c "First science from the Large Binocular Telescope". Nd.edu. 2007-04-13. http://www.nd.edu/~lumen/2007_04/FirstsciencefromtheLargeBinocularTelescope.shtml. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  8. ^ http://lbti.as.arizona.edu/LBTI-Main/Instrument.html
  9. ^ "The Mount Graham Red Squirrel". Medusa.as.arizona.edu. 2000-05-24. http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/graham/envir.html. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  10. ^ "News Media". Azgfd.gov. 2006-05-03. http://www.azgfd.gov/artman/publish/article_423.shtml. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  11. ^ "medusa.as.arizona.edu". medusa.as.arizona.edu. 2005-10-12. http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbto/first_light.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  12. ^ "spaceref.com". spaceref.com. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=18115. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  13. ^ http://lbti.as.arizona.edu/LBTI-Main/Project.html
  14. ^ http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbto//AO/AOpressrelease.htm
  15. ^ http://www.physorg.com/news195838118.html
  16. ^ "Sharper than Hubble: Large Binocular Telescope achieves major breakthrough". PhysOrg. 2010-06-15. http://www.physorg.com/news195838118.html. Retrieved 2010-08-01.
  17. ^ Luck-Bake, Andrew. "The New Galileos". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00k29vv. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  18. ^ ""XMM discovers monster galaxy cluster", DR EMILY BALDWIN, ASTRONOMY NOW, August 27, 2008". Astronomynow.com. 2008-08-27. http://astronomynow.com/080827XMMdiscoversmonstergalaxycluster.html. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  19. ^ http://www.nd.edu/~lumen/2007_04/FirstsciencefromtheLargeBinocularTelescope.shtml
  20. ^ http://medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbto/project_partners.htm

External links

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Categories: Telescopes | Astronomical observatories in Arizona | Buildings and structures in Graham County, Arizona | Interferometric telescopes | Ohio State University

 

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