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Science Forum Index » Astro Forum » Paranal Receives New Mirror (Forwarded)
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| Andrew Yee |
 Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:13 pm |
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ESO Education and Public Relations Dept.
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Text with all links and the photos are available on the ESO Website at
URL:
http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/pr-10-08.html
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Contacts:
Will Sutherland
VISTA Project Scientist,
Queen Mary, University of London, UK
Phone: +44 7889 396 348
Natalie Bealing
Science and Technology Facilities Council Press Office
Phone: +44 1235 445484
Dr. Henri Boffin
ESO Press Officer
Phone: +49 89 3200 6222
For Immediate Release: 16 April 2008
ESO Release 10/08
Paranal Receives New Mirror
Survey telescope nears completion
A 4.1-metre diameter primary mirror, a vital part of the world's newest
and fastest survey telescope, VISTA (the Visible and Infrared Survey
Telescope for Astronomy) has been delivered to its new mountaintop home at
Cerro Paranal, Chile. The mirror will now be coupled with a small camera
for initial testing prior to installing the main camera in June. Full
scientific operations are due to start early next year. VISTA will form
part of ESO's Very Large Telescope facility.
The mirror arrived over the Easter weekend at the Paranal Observatory
where the telescope is being assembled at an altitude of 2518m, in Chile's
Atacama Desert.
VISTA Project Manager Alistair McPherson from STFC's UK Astronomy
Technology Centre (UK ATC) accompanied the mirror on its journey to Chile:
"This is a major milestone for the VISTA project. The precious mirror was
loaded on to a plane in a special cradle that used tennis balls to cushion
it from impact for its arduous journey across three continents."
"The mirror had a difficult four-day journey, by air and by road. It
arrived in perfect condition and now that it has been coated, we will
install the mirror in the telescope with a small test camera for about
four weeks testing. We plan to install the main camera in June," said the
Project Scientist on VISTA, Will Sutherland of Queen Mary, University of
London, UK.
The VISTA 4.1-metre diameter primary mirror is the most strongly curved
large mirror ever polished to such a precise and exacting surface accuracy
-- deviations from a perfect surface of less than 1/3000th of the
thickness of a human hair. On arrival at Cerro Paranal it was safely
craned into the telescope dome where it was washed and coated with a thin
layer of protected silver in the facility's coating plant. Silver is the
best metal for the purpose since it reflects over 98% of near-infrared
light, better than the more commonly used aluminium. To date, the
reflectivity produced by the silver coating -- a relatively new venture --
is well above that specified and exceeds all other telescopes.
VISTA will survey large areas of the southern sky at near infrared
wavelengths (2 to 4 times the wavelength of visible light) to study
objects that are not seen easily in optical light either because they are
too cool (such as brown dwarfs), or are surrounded by interstellar dust
which infrared light penetrates much better than optical, or whose optical
light is redshifted into the near infrared by the expansion of the
Universe. Amongst other things VISTA's surveys will help our understanding
of the nature and distribution and origin of known types of stars and
galaxies, map the 3-D structure of our galaxy, and help determine the
relation between the 3-D structure of the universe and the mysterious
'dark energy' and dark matter'. Samples of objects will be followed up in
detail with further observations by other telescopes and instruments such
as the nearby Very Large Telescope.
"The delivery of the last component of VISTA is a significant milestone
and we are delighted with the progress made since the mirror arrived. Now
astronomers can really look forward to being able to perform unparalleled
observing of our Southern skies," said Richard Wade, President of the ESO
Council and STFC Chief Operating Officer.
VISTA is a 55 million euro [USD 88 million] project, funded by grants from
the UK DTI's Joint Infrastructure Fund and the STFC to Queen Mary,
University of London, the lead institute of the VISTA Consortium. VISTA
forms part of the UK's subscription to ESO and will be an ESO telescope.
VISTA is project managed by STFC's UK Astronomy Technology Centre. The
VISTA web page is at http://www.vista.ac.uk .
National contacts for the media:
Belgium: Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez, +32-2-474 70 50
Czech Republic: Pavel Suchan, +420 267 103 040
Denmark: Dr. Michael Linden-Vornle, +45-33-18 19 97
Finland: Ms. Riitta Tirronen, +358 9 7748 8369
France: Dr. Daniel Kunth, +33-1-44 32 80 85
Germany: Dr. Jakob Staude, +49-6221-528229
Italy: Dr. Leopoldo Benacchio, +39-347-230 26 51
The Netherlands: Dr. Marieke Baan, +31-20-525 74 80
Portugal: Prof. Teresa Lago, +351-22-089 833
Spain: Dr. Miguel Mas-Hesse, +34918131196
Sweden: Dr. Jesper Sollerman, +46-8-55 37 85 54
Switzerland: Dr. Martin Steinacher, +41-31-324 23 82
United Kingdom: Mr. Peter Barratt, +44-1793-44 20 25
USA: Dr. Paola Rebusco, +1-617-308-2397
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