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Release

ESO 46/06 - Associated Image

11 December 2006
For Immediate Release

The Rise of a Giant

ESO PR Photo 46/06

ESO PR Photo 46/06

The European Extremely Large Telescope

[Preview - JPEG: 435 x 400 pix - 124k]
[Normal - JPEG: 869 x 800 pix - 334k]
[Full Res - JPEG: 4000 x 3683 pix - 3.9M]
[Full Res - TIFF: 4000 x 3683 pix - 44M]


Wallpaper:    1680 x 1200 pix    1280 x 1024 pix    1024 x 768 pix   
Animations:
    Nightly Inside View   
    Daily Outside View   

Birds eye view of the elaborate 3-dimensional model of the European Extremely Large Telescope developed to determine expected performance during observing conditions. With a 42-m diameter primary mirror, the present baseline, its total rotating mass is 5500 tons. The two platforms on each side of the structure hold large instruments. The telescope features a novel, innovative design, based on 5 mirrors. The primary 42-m mirror is composed of 906 segments, each 1.45 m wide, while the secondary mirror is as large as 6 m in diameter. A tertiary mirror, 4.2 m in diameter, relays the light to the adaptive optics system, composed of two mirrors: a 2.5-m mirror supported by 5000 or more actuators so as to be able to distort its own shape a thousand times per second, and one 2.7 m in diameter that allows for the final image corrections. This five mirror approach results in an exceptional image quality, with no significant aberrations in the field of view.

ESO PR Video 46/06

ESO PR Video 46/06

The Rise of a Giant

[Quicktime - 320 x 240 pix - 50M]

4min45s long movie about this important decision and the European Extremely Large Telescope.