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The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT)

The Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam (AIP) is a partner in the LBT project through the LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft (LBTB) which coordinates the participation by 5 German institutes in the project. The other four institutes are the MPI für Astronomie (Heidelberg), the MPI für Radioastronomie (Bonn) and the MPI für Extraterrestrische Physik (Munich) and the Landessternwarte Heidelberg. The LBTB joined the project officially in February of 1997 and holds a 25% stake. Other partners are Italy, represented by Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory (Florence), the University of Arizona, the Research Corporation in Tucson, and Ohio State University.

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A brief summary

The Large Binocular Telescope is a new telescope which is being build on top of Mt. Graham in Arizona, USA. The telescope will collect the light from the Universe with two circular mirrors, each 8.4m in diameter. The total collecting area of the telescope corresponds to a single circular mirror with a diameter of 11.8m. This makes the LBT the most powerful single mount telescope in the world when it comes to light collection ability. There are also plans in preparation to combine the light from the two mirrors in what is called 'interferometric mode'. This will allow the LBT to achieve images with a resolution about 10 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope while still maintaining a field size of the order one arcminute on the side in the near-infrared wavelength region. This combination of large field-size (when compared to other interferometric telescopes which are currently being contemplated) and high angular resolution makes the LBT a unique facility for exploring the universe in the new millenium. The telescope saw "First Light" (press release) in 2005 with one main mirror, and science demonstration time was initiated in January 2007.

The telescope incorporates a number of novel technologies to achieve its full potential. The huge main mirrors are spun-cast honeycomb mirrors developed and fabricated in the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. The secondary mirrors will be fully 'adaptive'. This means that the surface of the mirror can be fine adjusted by computer in real time to compensate for instabilities in the atmosphere. This will allow the telescope to achieve angular resolutions very close to the theoretical limits even when the atmospheric conditions are not perfect.

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Latest changes: Nov 23, 2007