Large Binocular Telescope Achieves First Binocular Light

The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) partners in the U.S.A., Italy and Germany are pleased to announce that the LBT has successfully achieved first binocular light. After more than a decade of preparation, the world’s most powerful optical telescope is now looking skyward with both of its eyes wide open. The LBT uses two massive singular mirrors of 8.4 meters in diameter. By interferometric superposition of the two mirrors’ optical paths the LBT reaches the solution of a 22.8-meter telescope. The new instrument will provide new and more powerful views of deep space, including potentially answering fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and mysterious worlds in other planetary systems. The MPE, one of the institutions in the Excellence Cluster Universe, makes a significant contribution to the LBT near infrared instrument LUCIFER and will use the LBT to study the evolution of galaxies in the early Universe.

More information:

Presse Release of the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie Heidelberg (MPIA) (German)
LBT Press Release
Press Release of the University of Arizona

by B. Wankerl