ELT exhibition at ESO Headquarters

ESO staff members visit the special ELT exhibition set up at the ESO Headquarters storage hall for the ESO Council's visit in December 2010. The exhibition presented ELT prototypes and scale models. In this picture is a model of the adaptive optics system of the M4 mirror, which will be a 2.6 x 2.7-metre deformable mirror supported by 6000 or more actuators. By rapidly adjusting its shape, it will allow the telescope to correct the effects of atmospheric turbulence. The ELT has adaptive optics fully integrated into the optical system of the telescope.