Very Large Telescope: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:44, 25 November 2002

Revision as of 09:03, 28 November 2002

Line 1:

The '''Very Large Telescope''' ('''VLT''') is an optical [[telescope]] currently under construction. The VLT is a project of the [[European Southern Observatory]] organization.

It will be located at the [[Paranal Observatory]] on [[Cerro Paranal]], a 2,635-m high mountain in the [[Atacama Desert]] in northern [[Chile]].

ItThe VLT consists of a groupcluster of large telescopes, some of which are already in operation, with a central [[interferometer]] which will be used to resolve fine features.

In its full interferometric operating mode, the VLT is intended to achieve an effective angular resolution of 0.001 [[arcsecond]] at a wavelength of 1 µm. This is an angle of 0.000000005 radians, equivalent to resolving a target 2 meters across at the distance between the Earth and Moon.