Biggest Binoculars Ever to Be Better Than Hubble?

For all the excitement over Hubble and other space-based telescopes, ground-based observatories still have considerable life in them.

The BBC today profiles the Large Binocular Telescope observatory now drawing close to completion on Arizona's Mt. Graham. Conceived 20 years ago (but delayed due to funding and other concerns) the internationally funded observatory is taking an unusual approach of mounting two giant telescopes side by side.

The double view, along with techniques for combining the two images, will help work around the natural fuzziness created by light's passage through the Earth's atmosphere. Although each telescope will use light-collecting mirrors about 27.5 feet in diameter, the binocular effect will give it the light-gathering capacity of a single 39 foot mirror, and the resolution of a telescope 75 feet in diameter.

The scientists quoted in the article say that will provide a resolution
10 times that of Hubble's 8 foot mirror – sharp eyes indeed, if it turns out to be true.

So far, the facility has made observations using just one of the
'scopes. But the double-vision technique is expected to launch
"sometime this winter," according to University of Arizona's John Hill, the facility's technical director, quoted by the BBC here:

"The exciting thing about building a big telescope is that you never know what kind of discovery you will make," said Dr Hill. "It will probably discover things that people haven't even thought of yet."

Giant telescope's double vision [BBC]

(Image: Exterior of Mt. Graham's Large Binocular Telescope. Credit: John Hill)