{"id":8141,"date":"2014-06-20T11:11:48","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T15:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8141"},"modified":"2014-06-20T11:12:57","modified_gmt":"2014-06-20T15:12:57","slug":"blast-marks-start-of-construction-of-the-european-extremely-large-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8141","title":{"rendered":"Blast marks start of construction of the European Extremely Large Telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The European Southern Observatory (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/\" target=\"_d\">ESO<\/a>), which already has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/teles-instr\/\" target=\"_blank\">several major telescopes<\/a> in Chile, has begun construction\u00a0of a new one whose name says it all:\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/teles-instr\/e-elt\/\" target=\"_blank\">European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)<\/a>. With a 39 meter primary mirror, it should be called the European Monster Telescope. It will take 10 years to build the observatory.\u00a0The E-ELT will reside on top of the <\/span>3000-meter high peak of Cerro Armazones\u00a0and it\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">will eventually look something like this artist&#8217;s creation:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/eso1139e1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"8142\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?attachment_id=8142\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/eso1139e1.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1280,873\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"eso1139e[1]\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/eso1139e1-1024x698.jpg\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-8142\" src=\"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/eso1139e1-1024x698.jpg\" alt=\"eso1139e[1]\" width=\"520\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/eso1139e1-1024x698.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/eso1139e1-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/eso1139e1.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, to get that nice plateau on which to build it, they had to blow away\u00a0the peak. Yesterday there was a special event held to mark\u00a0the first big blast to cut off the peak. Here is a video of the event\u00a0(jump to 53 seconds to see the blast):<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Bzqa72gNJwU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;start=53&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>And here is an ESO press release about the event:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/news\/eso1419\/\" target=\"_d\">Groundbreaking for the E-ELT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Today a groundbreaking ceremony took place to mark the next major milestone towards ESO\u2019s European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). Part of the 3000-metre peak of Cerro Armazones was blasted away as a step towards levelling the summit in preparation for the construction of the largest optical\/infrared telescope in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/events\/special-evt\/eeltgroundbreaking\/\">groundbreaking ceremony<\/a>\u00a0at Paranal Observatory, 20 kilometres away from the blasting, was attended by distinguished guests from both Chile and the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/about-eso\/memberstates\/\">ESO Member States<\/a>, as well as representatives of the local communities, senior officials from the project and ESO staff. The event was also streamed live online and a recording of the event\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/ESOAstronomy\/eeltgroundbreaking\">can now be viewed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The order to proceed with the blasting was given by the Chilean Vice Minister of National Assets, Jorge Maldonado.<\/p>\n<p>During the groundbreaking ceremony the Chilean company\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.icafal.cl\/\">ICAFAL Ingenier\u00eda y Construcci\u00f3n S.A.<\/a>\u00a0blasted part of the top of Cerro Armazones and loosened about 5000 cubic metres of rock. This is just one part of an elaborate levelling process which will help landscape the mountain, so that it can accommodate the 39-metre telescope and its huge dome. A grand total of 220 000 cubic metres will need to be removed to make room for the 150 metre by 300 metre E-ELT platform.<\/p>\n<p>The Cerro Armazones civil works\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/announcements\/ann14019\/\">started in March 2014<\/a>\u00a0and are expected to take\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/announcements\/ann13099\/\">16 months<\/a>. These include the laying and maintenance of a paved road, the construction of the summit platform and the construction of a service trench to the summit\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.eso.org\/public\/news\/eso1419\/#1\">[1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The E-ELT first light is planned for 2024, when it will begin to tackle the biggest astronomical challenges of our time. The giant telescope is expected to allow the exploration of completely unknown realms of the Universe \u2014 it will be: \u201cthe world\u2019s biggest eye on the sky\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Southern Observatory (ESO), which already has several major telescopes in Chile, has begun construction\u00a0of a new one whose name says it all:\u00a0European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). With a 39 meter primary mirror, it should be called the European Monster Telescope. It will take 10 years to build the observatory.\u00a0The E-ELT will reside on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8141\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Blast marks start of construction of the European Extremely Large Telescope<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-27j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12686,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12686","url_meta":{"origin":8141,"position":0},"title":"ESO: Construction to commence on the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT)","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The European Southern Observatory (ESO) takes a step forward towards\u00a0construction of the biggest telescope ever built: ESO Signs Largest Ever Ground-based Astronomy Contract for E-ELT Dome and Telescope Structure At a ceremony in Garching bei M\u00fcnchen, Germany on 25 May 2016, ESO signed the contract with the ACe Consortium, consisting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Astronomy&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Astronomy","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"eso1617e[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/eso1617e1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9360,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=9360","url_meta":{"origin":8141,"position":1},"title":"European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) gets construction green light","author":"TopSpacer","date":"December 4, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The current generation of large\u00a0telescopes are amazing but the E-ELT will dwarf them: Green Light for E-ELT Construction This artist\u2019s impression shows the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in its enclosure. 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