Largest Telescopes Inexpensive, McDonald Harlan Smith Telescope, & HET, segmented mirror

Video shows excerpts from a fantastic tour presented by the McDonald Observatory. They show live video views of the sun, tour the telescopes, and have slide and video shows.

Video shows the Harlan Smith Telescope. (More videos about this group of telescopes will be added.)

The 9.2 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope, HET, is one of the largest optical telescopes in the world. It has the second largest mirror in the world, 36 feet accross, but not all of the mirror is operational. It now ranks as the fourth largest telescope in the world. Its cost is about 20% that of other similarly-sized telescopes. It cost only around 20 million dollars (the mirror ifself, if not mosaic, would cost around 100 million dollars).

The observatory operates several major research telescopes including the:
9.2 m (360") Hobby-Eberly Telescope, HET
2.7 m (107") Harlan J. Smith Telescope
2.1 m (82") Otto Struve Telescope
0.8 m (30") large format imaging telescope
A 0.9 m (36") telescope, formerly used for research, is now used for visitor programs.

ITT Fabricated the world's largest segmented mirror for Hobby-Eberly Telescope:

The McDonald Observatory is located near Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas. It is located on Mount Fowlkes and Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Its high, dry peaks of make for some of the darkest and clearest night skies in the country and provide excellent conditions for astronomical research.

It is the property of the University of Texas at Austin and is equipped with a wide range of instrumentation for imaging and spectroscopy in the optical and infrared spectra. It operates the first lunar laser ranging station.

Its 2.1 m telescope, dedicated on May 5, 1939, was the second largest telescope in the world.

The HET is operated jointly by the University of Texas at Austin, Stanford University, Pennsylvania State University, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, and Georg-August University of Göttingen. The McDonald Observatorys research encompasses a wide variety of projects, including planetary systems, stellar spectroscopy, the interstellar medium, extragalactic astronomy, and theoretical astronomy.
It also hosts one of the four globally networked Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) telescopes, and is a Monitoring Network of Telescopes (MONET) site.

According to:
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:E6jFaLJjxdwJ:www.ssd.itt.com/heritage/het...
ITT Fabricated the sorld's largest segmented mirror for Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The 11m-diameter mirror is a major component of the world's first major telescope designed specifically for spectroscopy — study of individual wavelengths of light from celestial objects. It is comprised of 91 hexagonal glass segments.

Shows how to make a World-Class telescope very inexpensively. Data is e-mailed to scientists.

Also near the telescope is Marfa, Texas, home of the mysterious Marfa Lights. While outside the telescope watched a controlled forest fire burn, which would diminish viewing time for the telescope. Above the telescope was a shiny object in the air-maybe a UFO or Marfa Light (video to be added).

Near the observatory is one of the the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescopes.

Category:

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Tags:

• Observatory
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• Hobby-Eberly
• 36
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• mosaic
• HET
• 2.7
• 107
• Harlan
• J.
• Smith
• 2.1
• 82
• Otto
• Struve
• McDonald
• Very
• Long
• Baseline
• Array
• VLBA
• radio
• astronomy
• largest
• second
• mirror
• inexpensive
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• new
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• planetary
• systems
• stellar
• spectroscopy
• interstellar
• medium
• extragalactic
• theoretical
• UFO
• SETI
• Marfa
• forest
• fire
• controlled
• burn
• Lights

[gadionson1]

got you

[secondjustice247]

Please invest on classes that teach you how to hold a camera instead. Ruins the video.

[joshig1983]

I like dreaming about space but the least likable part of amateur astronomy is how the learning curve levels out after just a few weeks of self study. The basics of astronomy and optics are repeatedly explained. Every tour and every star party is filled with the same old basics. How many times do they have to say refractors use lenses and reflectors use mirrors?

[jamieball]

wow 2.7m primary mirror.. must be nice!

[jhmoonman]

Backround too noisy,with an unlevel camera,in the beginning.

[MegaRockydog1]

you think thats cool keep it straight and it will be cool

[2degucitas]

You always have the best videos! I'm impressed with the research put into the info box. Great job!