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29-649: The Large Binocular Telescope ( LBT ) is an optical telescope for astronomy located on 10,700-foot (3,300 m) Mount Graham , in the Pinaleno Mountains of southeastern Arizona , United States. It is a part of the Mount Graham International Observatory . When using both 8.4 m (330 inch) wide mirrors, with centres 14.4 m apart, the LBT has the same light-gathering ability as an 11.8 m (464 inch) wide single circular telescope and

58-607: A Strehl ratio of 60–80% rather than the 20–30% of older adaptive optic systems, or the 1% typically achieved without adaptive optics for telescopes of this size. Adaptive optics at a telescope's secondary (M2) was previously tested at MMT Observatory by the Arcetri Observatory and University of Arizona team. The telescope has made appearances on an episode of the Discovery Channel TV show Really Big Things , National Geographic Channel Big, Bigger, Biggest , and

87-523: A baseline of 15 meters (49 ft) for nulling interferometry. This feature is along one axis with the LBTI instrument at wavelengths of 2.9–13 micrometres, which is the near infrared. The telescope was designed by a group of Italian firms, and assembled by Ansaldo in its Milanese plant. The choice of location sparked considerable local controversy, both from the San Carlos Apache Tribe , who view

116-470: A few separate observatories authorized by a rare peace-time Congressional waiver of U.S. environmental laws. The United States Congress authorized construction of the observatories on the mountain in 1988, but there has been outcry from the four federally recognized tribes of the Western Apache Nation and Native American groups, who consider the site to be sacred. Environmental groups, including

145-560: Is also the southernmost peak and land area in the continental United States above 10,000 feet (3,048 m). As the name "Mount Graham" is often used by locals to refer to the entire mountain range, the peak itself is frequently referred to as "High Peak". It is twentieth of the 57 ultra-prominent peaks of the lower 48 states , and the first of the five in Arizona. Mount Graham summits are headwaters for numerous perennial streams that tumble through five major botanical zones. Located between

174-453: Is always a moment of great excitement, both for the people who design and build the telescope and for the astronomical community, who may have anticipated the moment for many years while the telescope was under construction. A well-known and spectacular astronomical object is usually chosen as a subject. The famous 5.08-metre (200 in) Hale Telescope of Palomar Observatory saw first light on 26 January 1949, targeting NGC 2261 under

203-407: Is equivalent to an 11.8-meter (460 in) circular aperture, which would be greater than any other single telescope, but it is not comparable in many respects since the light is collected at a lower diffraction limit and is not combined in the same way. Also, an interferometric mode will be available, with a maximum baseline of 22.8 meters (75 ft) for aperture synthesis imaging observations and

232-577: The BBC program The Sky At Night . The BBC Radio 4 radio documentary The New Galileos covered the LBT and the James Webb Space Telescope . LBT, with the XMM-Newton , was used to discover the galaxy cluster 2XMM J083026+524133 in 2008, over 7 billion light years away from Earth . In 2007 the LBT detected a 26th magnitude afterglow from the gamma ray burst GRB 070125 . In 2017, LBT observed

261-483: The Hubble Space Telescope in 1990 soon gave way to initial disappointment when a flaw prevented adjustments for proper operation. The expected first light image quality was finally achieved after a 1993 servicing mission by Space Shuttle Endeavour . The Large Binocular Telescope had its first light with a single primary mirror on 12 October 2005, which was a view of NGC 891 . The second primary mirror

290-705: The Mount Graham Red Squirrel . Located near the northern limit of the Chiricahua Apache homeland and the southern margins of Western Apache territory, the range is one of the Western Apache's four holiest mountains and is considered sacred by all of the region's Native peoples. Since a determination by the Keeper of the Register in 2002, Dził Nchaa Sí'an, as it is known in the Western Apache language, ranks as

319-452: The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, an uncrewed asteroid sample return spacecraft, in space while it was en route. Some current or planned LBT telescope instruments: LUCI (originally LUCIFER: L arge Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Spectroscopic U tility with C amera and I ntegral F ield Unit for E xtragalactic R esearch) is the near-infrared instrument for the LBT. The name of the instrument

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348-606: The Sierra Club , also oppose the Mount Graham International Observatory because the higher elevations are the last remaining habitat for the Mount Graham Red Squirrel. First light (astronomy) The first light image is normally of little scientific interest and is of poor quality, since the various telescope elements are yet to be adjusted for optimum efficiency. Despite this, a first light

377-589: The LBT project Mount Graham Mount Graham (called in Nnee biyati' (Western Apache) Dził Nchaa Sí'an – 'Big Seated Mountain') is a mountain in Graham County , Arizona, United States, approximately 70 miles (110 km) northeast of Tucson . The mountain reaches 10,724 feet (3,269 m) in height. It is the highest elevation in Graham County , Coronado National Forest and the Pinaleño Mountains . It

406-1069: The LBT. The LBT was originally named the "Columbus Project". It is a joint project of these members: the Italian astronomical community represented by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica , the University of Arizona , University of Minnesota , University of Notre Dame , University of Virginia , the LBT Beteiligungsgesellschaft in Germany ( Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Landessternwarte in Heidelberg, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich and Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn ); Ohio State University ; and

435-552: The Research Corporation for Science Advancement based in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The cost was around 100 million Euro. The telescope design has two 8.4 m (330 inch) mirrors mounted on a common base, hence the name " binocular ". LBT takes advantage of active and adaptive optics , provided by Arcetri Observatory . The collecting area is two 8.4 meter aperture mirrors, which works out to about 111 m combined. This area

464-563: The Rome Astrophysical Observatory. In binocular aperture synthesis mode LBT has a light-collecting area of 111 m, equivalent to a single primary mirror 11.8-meter (39 ft) in diameter, and will combine light to produce the image sharpness equivalent to a single 22.8-meter (75 ft) telescope. However, this requires a beam combiner that was tested in 2008, but has not been a part of regular operations. It can take images with one side at 8.4 m aperture, or take two images of

493-493: The clumpy regions of newly formed hot stars in the spiral arms. The second image combined two deep red colors to highlight the smoother distribution of older, cooler stars. The third image was a composite of ultraviolet, green and deep red light and shows the detailed structure of hot, moderate and cool stars in the galaxy. The cameras and images were produced by the Large Binocular Camera team, led by Emanuele Giallongo at

522-570: The direction of American astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble . The image was published in many magazines and is available on Caltech Archives. The Isaac Newton Telescope had two first lights: one in England in 1965 with its original mirror, and another in 1984 at La Palma island. The second first light was done with a video camera that showed the Crab Pulsar flashing. Elation at first light images by

551-494: The entrance aperture in which either a mirror (for imaging) or a grating can be positioned. Three camera optics with numerical apertures of 1.8, 3.75 and 30 provide image scales of 0.25, 0.12, and 0.015 arcsec/detector element for wide field, seeing-limited and diffraction-limited observations. LUCI is operated at cryogenic temperatures, and is therefore enclosed in a cryostat of 1.6 m diameter and 1.6 m height, and cooled to about −200 °C by two closed-cycle coolers. Partners in

580-473: The first light viewed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was from the star HD 84406 for the purpose of testing and aligning the focus of the telescope's 18 mirrors . On 11 February 2022. The New York Times reported that "first light" images from the James Webb Space Telescope were released - as well as a related NASA alignment video (2/11/2022; 3:00) . On 6 July 2022, NASA released

609-604: The largest and most extensive (~330,000 acres) property listed on or formally determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. In 1993, the St. Paisius Orthodox Monastery was founded at the base of the mountain. Mount Graham hosts both species of Arizona native trout – Gila and Apache trout and three species of introduced trout. Mount Graham is home to the Mount Graham International Observatory area, where multiple organizations have set up large telescopes in

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638-558: The more recent in the summer of 2017. Likewise the squirrels continue to survive. Some experts now believe their numbers fluctuate dependent upon nut harvest without regard to the observatory. The telescope was dedicated in October 2004 and saw first light with a single primary mirror on October 12, 2005, which viewed NGC 891 . The second primary mirror was installed in January 2006 and became fully operational in January 2008. The first light with

667-677: The mountain as sacred, and from environmentalists who contended that the observatory would cause the demise of an endangered subspecies of the American red squirrel, the Mount Graham red squirrel . Environmentalists and members of the tribe filed some forty lawsuits – eight of which went before a federal appeals court – but the project ultimately prevailed after an act of the United States Congress . The telescope and mountain observatory survived two major forest fires in thirteen years,

696-534: The resolution of a 22.8 m (897 inch) wide one. The LBT mirrors individually are the joint second- largest optical telescope in continental North America, next to the Hobby–Eberly Telescope in West Texas . It has the largest monolithic, or non- segmented , mirror in an optical telescope. Strehl ratios of 60–90% in the infrared H band and 95% in the infrared M band have been achieved by

725-399: The same object using different instruments on each side of the telescope. In the summer of 2010, the "First Light Adaptive Optics" (FLAO) – an adaptive optics system with a deformable secondary mirror rather than correcting atmospheric distortion further downstream in the optics – was inaugurated. Using one 8.4 m side, it surpassed Hubble sharpness (at certain light wavelengths), achieving

754-545: The second primary mirror was on September 18, 2006, and for the first and second together it was on January 11–12, 2008. The first binocular light images show three false-color renditions of the spiral galaxy NGC 2770 . The galaxy is 88 million light years from the Milky Way galaxy, a relatively close neighbor. The galaxy has a flat disk of stars and glowing gas tipped slightly toward Earth's line of sight . The first image taken combined ultraviolet and green light, and emphasizes

783-490: The southern Rocky Mountains and Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental , and biologically isolated for millennia, the higher elevations have provided refuge for relict populations of plants and animals with adaptive strategies rooted in Pleistocene ice age environmental conditions. Of particular note are stands of the oldest conifer trees in the U.S. Southwest and associated habitats for threatened and endangered species, especially

812-404: Was changed to LUCI in 2012. LUCI operates in the 0.9–2.5 μm spectral range using a 2048 x 2048 element Hawaii-2RG detector array from Teledyne and provides imaging and spectroscopic capabilities in seeing- and diffraction-limited modes. In its focal plane area, long-slit and multi-slit masks can be installed for single-object and multi-object spectroscopy. A fixed collimator produces an image of

841-429: Was installed in January 2006 and became fully operational in January 2008. The 10.4-metre (1,040 cm) Gran Telescopio Canarias had a first light image of Tycho 1205081 on 14 July 2007. The IRIS solar space observatory achieved first light on 17 July 2013. The PI noted: "The quality of images and spectra we are receiving from IRIS is amazing. This is just what we were hoping for ..." On 4 February 2022,

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