Large Telescope Projects Either Being Considered or in the Works (Not ever claimed to be complete) Version 8.5 12/31/91 Part One Optical Telescopes * The Keck Telescope, a 10-meter on Mauna Kea being built by the California Association for Research in Astronomy (CARA), made up of the University of California and Caltech. Primary mirror will be comprised of 36-segments. Saw first light in Nov. 1990 with nine segments. Work continues. Reported $94.2 million price tag. * The Keck II Telescope. Officially announced by CARA and Keck. To be another 10-meter instrument on Mauna Kea that would be used for interferometry in company with the first 10-meter telescope. Projected cost is $93.3 million. Keck Foundation has donated $74.6 million. Asking NASA for remaining $18.7 million. First light in 1996. * Very Large Telescope (VLT), an array of four 8-meter mirrors that will be able to work as interferometer. Will use thin meniscus mirrors with active support much like the NTT does. Planned for Cerro Paranal, Chile. European Southern Observatory. First light 1995. Apparent full funding. Have cast first 8.7-meter spun cast mirror blank. * Gemini - NOAO is planning a double 8-meter project, with one telescope in the Northern Hemisphere and another in southern skies. Expected to use spun-cast mirrors from University of Arizona Mirror Lab (F/1.8 or shorter). Northern site to be Mauna Kea and southern site near Cerro Tololo (Cerro Pachon). Northern half received $4 million in start up funding, with plans to start construction early in 1993. Recently recommended this telescope be optimized for infrared work (2 to 10um). Gemini is expected to cost about $80 million. First light in 1997. Bahcall report recommends that southern telescope should be optimized for optical and near-ultraviolet. Expected cost of $55 million. Canadians have dropped out of this project but may be back in at 10 percent (?). Currently partnered with U.S. and Britain and apparently searching for another partner (the Aussies?). * The Magellan 8-meter telescope. Partners include the Carnegie Institute of Washington and the University of Arizona. $43 million cost. John Hopkins dropped out in April. To be built at Las Campanas, Chile, starting in 1991 with first light in 1996. Arizona spun-cast mirror. If new partner is not found, may be scaled back to 6.5-meters with Carnegie committed to building in at least SOME form. * The Japanese National Telescope or JNLT is a 8.2-meter instrument with a "meniscus" mirror with about 400 actuators. Named "SUBARU" in August. To be located on Mauna Kea. Approved by Ministry of Education, construction started April, 1991. 8.31-meter monolithic mirror blank to be cast by Corning using ULE glass. Weight, 60,000 lbs, 8-inches thick. Three years to manufacture and another three years to grind, polish and figure. Cost about $350 million. First light in 1999. * The 'Deutsches Grossteleskop,' or German Large Telescope. A 12-meter reflector consisting of a central single 8-meter mirror and several 2-meter sectorial segments. To include both active and adaptive optics. Cassegrain focus will be primary data collection point (unlike most other projects which also have a Nasmyth focus). Location and date of first light unknown. Construction time of 5-6 years. * The Columbus Project, twin 8.4-meter telescope to be jointly funded by the University of Arizona and the Italian National Observatory -- Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory -- and to be located on Mt. Graham in southern Arizona. Expected cost is at least $60 million. Ohio State University dropped this project because of lack of funds. Arizona is talking to either two or three possible partners. Rumors include the University of Toronto. * WIYN, University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Yale University and the National Optical Astronomical Observatory's (NOAO), 3.5-meter telescope expected to be finished on Kitt Peak in May, 1993. Uses UofA spun cast mirror. Replacing the #1 36-inch telescope. Formerly WIN. * MMT Conversion. The University of Arizona and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to replace MMT's six 72-inch mirrors (4.5-meter aperture) with a single spun-cast 6.5-meter for $15.5 million. Casting of mirror has been set for mid Feburary, 1992 (set back from December, 1991). Primary will be f/1.25, three secondaries will give f/5.4, f/9, and f/15, the latter with a chopping secondary for infrared work. The f/5.4 focus will have a 3-element refractive corrector to give a 1 degree field of view. Current MMT will cease operations in January, 1994. First light planned for late 1994 at F/9. F/15 and F/5.4 to be operational in 1995. Related information: the 1.8- meter F/1 VATT mirror has recently been completed with a surface that departs from a perfect paraboloid by 17 nm rms. (NTT mirror achieves 12.7 nm rms only through active mirror support). * ARC, University of Chicago, University of Washington and Washington State, New Mexico State University and Princeton. 3.5-meter telescope using one of three 3.5 meter spun-cast blanks produced by the UofA Mirror Lab. Figuring of mirror complete, should be in telescope in a couple of months. Located at Sunspot, New Mexico. Testing used a smaller, substitute mirror. * Weapons Laboratory. U.S. Air Force, Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico (AFWL). To be resting place of one of the three Roger Angel spun-cast 3.5-meter mirror. Mirror was been generated on the Large Optical Generator (LOG) at the UofA Mirror Lab and is being polished and figured on their stressed lap machine. Recently achieved target surface 28nm RMS from perfect paraboloid, down from 120nm this fall. Mirror Lab expects to continue figuring to see just how good of a surface the stressed lap method can make. First light in 1991. * SST, or Spectroscopic Survey Telescope, being built by the University of Texas and Penn State at McDonald Observatory in western Texas. To be made up of 85 1-meter spherical mirrors on a rotating mount pointed 30 degrees from zenith. Twin detectors that will track objects independently will allow this telescope to collect spectra from declinations from -5 to +60, down to magnitude 22. Cost is about $9 million. Funding almost complete and about a dozen mirrors have been ground. * Digital Sky Survey or just Survey telescope (?). 2.5-meter alt- azimuth will scan sky with clocking CCDs as sky rotates past undriven telescope. Five years to image full sky in four or maybe five colors using 30 2k x 2k CCDs. Will also measure redshifts for about 1 million galaxies by taking 600 spectra at once. Located at Sunspot? Funded by ARC, Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies and Fermilab (?) Cost? Some funding on hand, reported to have ordered mirror. * Soviet, er Russian, er, whatever, 6-meter upgrade. A new ultra low expansion (ULE) glass mirror blank has been cast for the 6-meter alt-altazimuth telescope of the USSR Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in the Caucasus. Installation in 1993? * SOFIA, or Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy. Boeing 747SP aircraft mounted 2.5-meter reflector. Replacement for the Gerald P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory. To fly 100 8-hour flights a year. To observe 30 to 300 microns. First light in 1993. Apparently budgeted fiscal 1992. $230 million cost. Sponsored by NASA and the German Science Ministry (BMFT). * LEST, or Large Earth-based Solar Telescope. 2.4-meter aperture to use adaptive opticals to increase resolution of images and spectra. To be located in the Canary Islands. Ten counties, (who?), including U.S. who will contribute $15 million, about one third of construction and operation cost. * SOAR, or Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research. University of North Carolina and Columbia University with operation by NOAO with all three splitting time. $20 million 4-meter telescope for Cerro Pachon. Completion in mid-1990s. Based on NTT, 4.07-meter primary that is 20 cm thick on active support. Two quick change instruments at Nasmyth focus. Glass for primary ordered. No planned F/ratio yet. * Cambridge-Cambridge Telescope, or Cambridge^2. Harvard (CfA) in U.S. and Cambridge in UK are teaming up to build a 4-meter class project. Similar to other projects with fibre-fed and large field spectroscopes. To be used to boost red-shift surveys and other large, long-term projects. Site in south, probably Cerro Pachon. Some US money, about $3 million, raised toward a $24 million goal to cover construction and an operation endowment. Part Two Radio Telescopes (Land and Space) * VLBA, or Very Long Baseline Array. Ten 25-meter antennas located all over continental U.S., Hawaii and Virgin Islands. 8000 mile baseline. The $70 million price includes a central signal processing system called the correlator and a major computing facility for post-processing collected data. Headquarters to be in Socorro, N.M., jointly managed with the Very Large Array. Project is about half done. "First light" was couple years ago, regular operations expected in 1992. * VSOP. A Japanese 10-meter radio telescope satellite. To be launched into high Earth orbit with intermediate inclination. Intended to work in conjunction with VLBA much of the time. Launch in 1994? * Radioastron. USSR 10-meter radio telescope satellite to be launched into very high Earth orbit with a high inclination. Intended to work in conjunction with VLBA and/or several USSR 70-meter VLBI antennas. Reported to be launched 1994. Threaten by recent events. Any word? * GBT, or Green Bank Telescope. A 100-meter, fully steerable, alt-azimuth off-axis obstruction free telescope to be located in Greenbank, West Virginia. Active surface control is hoped to be able to allow the surface to be good enough for observations at a wavelength of 3 millimeters. Ground breaking was May 1 with a 1995 completion. Cost; $75 million. Replacement for 300 foot telescope. * MMA, or Millimeter Array. Proposed to NSF, awaiting funding. Highly recommended by the Bahcall report. Forty transportable 8-meter dishes in array with baselines from 70 meters up to three kilometers, to operate in millimeter bands (.9mm to 9mm). Imaging. $115 million cost. Probably to be located in Arizona or New Mexico in a high, dry site. * The Berkeley Illinois Maryland Array (BIMA) is being expanded from three to nine (with NSF funding the last three) dishes of 6-meters, all operating in millimeter bands (to 1mm). Assembly underway. Upgrade expected to be finished by 1994. Located at Hat Creek, CA. * Owens Valley Radio Observatory Millimeter Array is being expanded from three to five antennas of 10.4-meters. To operate in all millimeter bands (to 1mm), the last coming on line in August 1993. Talks continue with a possible partner in the addition of a sixth antenna. * Max Planck Sub-millimeter telescope to go on Mt. Graham, built by thebands (to 1mm), the last coming on line in August 1993. Talks continue Max Planck Institute of Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany andwith a possible partner in the addition of a sixth antenna. the University of Arizona. The telescope is finished and awaits completion of structure. * Arecibo Upgrade. A full size Gregorian subreflector system which will provide a bandwidth low-loss feed system and provide an effective 200-meter aperture at up to 8 GHz observing frequency. Also a 10- meter high ground screen to reduce noise at zenith. Funded by NASA and NSF. * Submillimeter Array, or SMA. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (CfA) will create an array of six dishes, each 6-meters in diameter, with a maximum baseline of about 500 meters, operating up to 900 GHz (330 microns). Negotiations underway to locate SMA in the "millimeter valley" on Mauna Kea, where site studies are now underway. Bids for antenna contract are due in March 1992. Expected cost is about $40 million. * Upgrade of the AT (Australia Telescope) with 6x22m dishes on a 3 kilometer straight EW track. New dish at Siding Spring 115 kilometers away with the intention to link to other Australian dishes (Parkes, Tidbinbilla DSN, others as available). * VLA extension and repair. Adding four new telescopes and ancillary hardware to increase resolution. Also to fix up the world's biggest (and one of THREE in the world?) astronomical railroad. $32 million. * CAT at Cambridge (UK), or the Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope. Three element intermerometer of new type design, intended to map the Cosmic Background radiation on scales of about 1 degree. It will operate from about in three bands from 12 to 18 GHz to remove foreground contamination. Cost about 3 million pounds, funded by SERC. Completion in 1993? Part 3 Optical Interferometers * Astrometric Interferometry Mission (AIM). U.S. space-based $250 million project. Desired to have 3 to 30-millionth of an arcsecond accurary. To observe 0.1 to .1um. More details? * Infrared-Optical Telescope Array (IOTA). Two element expanding to three fairly quickly. Design planned for Mount Hopkins with 0.45-meter apertures. 35 and 15-meter NE-SE L shaped baseline. Visible and IR. Completion in 1992. Sponsors include; Smithsoniam Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), Harvard University, University of Massachusetts, University of Wyoming, MIT (Lincoln). Cost unknown. * CHARA, or Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy, operated by Georgia State University with engineering support provided by the Georgia Tech Research Institute is building a seven element array arranged in a Y shape with a maxium baseline of 400 meters. One-meter aperture mirrors with limiting magnitude of 12 and perhaps down to 14 as adaptive optics technology matures. Limiting resolution to be 0.16 milliarcseconds. Site was to be selected this summer, New Mexico was favored. Completion set for 1995. * Big Optical Array (BOA), will have six 24-inch telescopes arranged in a Y shape with a diameter of at least 250 meters. Planned by the Naval Research Laboratories (and others?). Internal funding, cost $10 - 16 million. To be built somewhere on Anderson Mesa near Flagstaff, Az with completion planned for 1993. * USNO Astrometric (Optical) Interferometer, or AOI. Being built by U.S. Naval Observatory with first light in 1993. Four elements, 0.75m aperture with a baseline of 5 to 40 meters. Currently under design. Location to be announced. (Cost?) * COAST (Cambridge [England] Optical Aperture Synthesis Telescope) 4 movable telescopes 40cm diameter, baselines up to 100 meters; under construction. Recently reported first fringes using two mirrors. * SUSI (Sydney University Stellar Interferometer), at Narrabri NSW Australia, dedicated last March. First fringe (?). Uses 14cm apertures(to minimize seeing effects and maximize accuracy), two mirrors at a time, baselines 5-640 meters north-south (the longest of any ground based instrument); purpose to measure angular diameter of stars down with a visual magnitude of 8. Plans to eventually add an east-west baseline for imaging (which requires at least 3 telescopes). * CHARON (I3T - Interferometere 3 telescopes - roughly, in french); Observatiore de Cote d'Azur (OCA); Three 0.26-meter apertures on north, south and west baselines variable from 10 to 140 meters; visible; under construction for completion 1992. * GI3T; Observatoire de Cote d'Azur (OCA); Three x 1.5m apertures on north, south and west baselines variable from 9 to 62 meters; visible to near IR; under construction for completion 1991. Part 4 Space Projects * HST/WFPCII upgrade. To include Jitter/Gyro/solar panel fix. Planned (late) 1993 (or later) replacment of the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary (WFPC) camera. New filters and CCDs. Planned before launch of HST, WFPC II will include corrective optics for spherical abberration. * HST/COSTAR upgrade, or Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement. To replace the High-Speed Photometer (HSP) with a dummy instrument that will hold a device to swing reflective corrective optics into place over the focal planes of the FOS, FOC and GHRS instruments. Primary contractor is Ball Aerospace Corp., two sets of optics, one made by Tinsley, the other by UTOS with first pieces delivered in December, 1991 and all mirrors finished by March, 1992. Optical throughput of 56 percent at 1216A and 72 percent at 6328A. On schedule for May, 1993 delivery to Goddard for testing. Four different groups will do independent tests. About $60 million budget. Proposed for (late) 1993 launch. Also some talk of adding a photometer to replace HSP. Formerly SMARTstar. * HST/STIS, or Space Telescope Imaging Spectrometer, HST upgrade. To replace FOC and HRS in function in single unit. Both spectroscopic and imaging. To now fly after NICMOS/NIC. Corrective optics. $110 million budget has reportedly recently been cut to $85 million in order to help fund COSTAR. * HST/NIC, or Near Infrared Camera, formly NICMOS, HST replacement instrument for imaging (Spectrometer may have been dropped, totally). To be flown after WFPC II flight. Infrared to 2.5 microns. Corrective optics. $100 million budget(?). Has also reportedly suffered about the same funding cutback as STIS to help fund COSTAR. * ISO, Infrared Space Observatory. ESA mission. Building hardware now, launch is May 1993. 70 cm aperture. Fully cooled, lifetime should be 18 months, and there are four instruments for spectroscopy and imaging from 3 to 150 microns. 24 hour, highly elliptic orbit to get apogee above radiation belts. Might ask NASA to run one of three observing shifts during 18 month flight, with US observers getting the time (much like IUE). * Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF). Planned launch in 1998. This $1.2 billion project will be launched from shuttle. Most likely delayed do to recent NASA budget juggling. Recently tested optics. * Space Infrared Telescope Facility, or SIRTF. 1995 (?) start with project management at JPL and instruments built by three different teams. Telescope has a .9-m aperture and will be optimized for maximum sensitivity from 3 to 700 microns. $1.3 billion project with earliest launch date of 2003. To use newly developed detectors. Planned five year lifetime in high Earth orbit (10^5 km). Likely delays if not cancellation yet to come. * Planetary Telescope Mission. One meter telescope which was initiated as US-German project but has turned into a ESA study. Will also carry a piggy-back extreme-UV telescope with grazing incidence optics. Main telescope to have the following instruments, Imaging Spectrometer, CCD Camera with an field of 105 arcseconds and a resolution near or better than 0.1 arcseconds, UV Imaging Spectrograph, Photon Counting Camera with 0.025 arcsecond resolution at 100 nm and a Infrared spectrometer * Astro-D. Joint Japan-U.S. X-ray astronomy telescope satellite mission scheduled for launch in Feb. 1993. Responsibilites are split between: ISAS (the Institute for Space and Aeronautical Science); The University of Tokyo; Goddard Space Flight Center; MIT and Penn State. Four sets of conical foil mirrors to image X-rays onto four detectors. Coverage up to 12 KeV. Astro-D will offer non-dispersive spectroscopy in the X-ray range 3-4 orders of magnitude more sensitive than the FPCS on Einstein, and a factor of 3-4 higher resolution than the ROSAT mission. Likely that Astro-D will preceed its technical competitors, AXAF and XMM, by nearly a decade (current dates for AXAF and XMM are 1998.) * XXM. ESA Cornerstone 2000 mission. 3000 sq. cm X-ray mission with parallel 30-cm optical telescope to provide simulataneous optical and UV photometry. Groups involved include: EPIC from the UK, Thomson from France, and Max-Planck. Many sub-groups contributing, including some U.S.. Launch date and cost? * Small class Explorers (SMEX) (Payload < 200kg) * SWAS, Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite, is being developed at SAO. Its purpose is to map spectral lines in the submillimeter. Target line at 557 GHz (Water). Other targets include 492 GHz (C I), 487 GHz (O2) and 550 GHz (12CO). Last heard official launch date was June, 1995 using a Pegasus. * Delta class Explorers * X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE). To study "soft" X-rays (1 to 100-KeV) is developed at NASA/Goddard and MIT. Currently plan to use the same explorer platform as EUVE with 1995 shuttle mission to swap out instruments. * EUVE, or Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer. Out of Berkeley. To survey sky last unexplored frontier, waveband from 100 to 900 A. Launch set for May 28 on Delta II. * FUSE, or Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Explorer. To make spectroscopic observations shorter than 120 nm. Will bridge wavelength gap between HST and AXAF. $70 million with 1999 launch. Suppose to fly on XTE's platform (guidance and communications), but Bahcall report recommends sooner launch on separate platform * Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE). To study the isotopic and elemental abundances of cosmic rays across a broad range of wavelengths. 1997 launch. Part 5 Other Ground Based Telescopes * Cosmic-ray telescope (Fly's Eye). Follow-up to current Fly's Eye telescope, with factor of 10 increase in sensitivity and better resolution. Energy range of 10^19 to 10^20 eV. $15 million. * GRANITE, 11-meter reflector in on Mt. Hopkins for detecting very high energy gamma rays. Detection is via Cherenkov radiation emitted in the upper atmosphere. The mount from a surplus solar-energy collector and has already been installed. Will operate in stereo (120 meter baseline) from the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory gamma ray telescope. Saw first light 13 September, full operations in November, 1991. Dedication scheduled for January 22, 1992, at the 7600-foot level of Mt. Hopkins, Arizona. Operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Iowa State University, the University of Michigan, Purdue University, University College, Dublin; St. Patrick's College, Maynooth; and the University of Leeds. It is funded largely by the U.S. Department of Energy but also by NASA and the Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Fund. NOTE: I'll probably delete this project since it appears to be completed. * LIGO, Large Interferometer Gravity Wave Observatory (?), two four kilometer long detectors to attempt to discover gravity waves. Need third (hopefully in Europe) to determine direction of source. Caltech/MIT to build, but open to national community. Also involved: Stanford, University of Colorado and Syracuse. Cost: $211 million including first set of detectors. Time scale? * Super-Kamiokade - Neutrino detector 1 km underground in Japan's Gifu Prefecture. Institute of Cosmic Ray Research of Tokyo University. 50,000 tons of water with 11,200 photomultiplier tubes. Estimated cost of $64 million. Completion in 1996. Part 6 Large Amateur Projects * Group 70. An 1.8-meter amateur optical telescope with a planned configuration of a classical Cassegrain (f/3 primary, f/10 overall) on a computer-controlled alt-azimuth fork mounting. The group has blank with grinding machine under construction. Looking at four sites in CA. Projected cost about $1 million. Lots of volunteer work and donations for funding. * AAC, or Amateur Astronomy Centre. Near Lancashire, England. Large amateur based project including planetarium is building a 1-meter cassegrain and currently has a .76-meter newtonian (dobsonian). * LEAP (Lake Erie Astronomical Project) II. Norm Oberly of Cleveland, Ohio is currently building grinding machine to work a ~40-inch fused quartz blank. In early 1970s, Oberly made a 31-inch F/7 mirror, (LEAP I)that is now the heart of the telescope at Warren Rupp Observatory, Mansfield, Ohio. * NPO, or National Public Observatory, Alpine, TX.. Maybe site of up to ten 2-meter telescopes with many more planned. Any information out there on this? Updates? Costs, etc.? ------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled by Robert Bunge. Culled from various newspaper, magazine articles, interviews with project scienists, the Bahcall report and with the wonderfull cooperation of USENET sci.astro net readers. Please send additions, updates and corrections to the address below. Perons are encouraged to distribute this listing, display it, or publish it in newsletters free of charge, as long as due credit is given and it is done so in it's entirety. ----------------------------------------------------------- "So what is going to happen to all those 72-inch MMT mirrors?" At least a hundred aperture crazed amateurs from all over the globe. Robert Bunge 8814 Hawthorne Ln. #203 Laurel, MD 20708 Ph (301)317-0034