Is the Giant Magellan Telescope set to revolutionize ground-based astronomy?

[jim mcnamara]

Planning is underway for the new super giant Magellan Telescope -- it will be the largest mirror ever on ground based telescopes, according to the link.

http://www.gmto.org/

 

[Dude111]

Looks very interesting!

I wonder just how far it will be able to see!

 

[Chronos]

I can't help but wonder is smaller mirror segments would be more efficient. Collimation appears to be the issue with segmented mirrors. Given the power of modern microprocessor, it looks like an opportunity to do something amazing.

 

[mgb_phys]

This is a lot easier to align than something like Keck with a segmented mirror - so the cost of the support hardware and control system is a lot less.
The mirrors should also cost a lot less because they are each a conventional mirror with an identical curvature that can be tested indvidualy. Keck had a hard time making the different off-axis mirror segments.
You can also make the individual primaries much faster - so the telescope is shorter and so the dome and telescope structure is much cheaper

The main drawback of this design is for mid-IR the camera can see through the gaps between the mirrors to the hot ground behind it which gives a larger background signal. But the telescope probably isn't going to be used for MIR.

I worked on the original Magellan (a pair of 6.4m) an I know a lot of the people working on this.