1/2 I still struggle getting used to the fact that the smallest mirrors of the Extremely Large Telescope are similar in size to the primary mirrors of many current telescopes!
The M5 – the fifth mirror in the optical path – has reached a key milestone: its blank, the piece that will be later polished, has been finalised.
2/2 This flat elliptical mirror measures 2.7 by 2.2 metres. It's the largest tip-tilt mirror in the world: it will move without bending about 10 times per second.
It will work together with the M4, a very fast deformable mirror, to correct perturbations caused by the telescope mechanisms, the wind and atmospheric turbulence.
@tehstu Likewise! I really like chatting with the engineers here when I have the chance. Sometimes I feel that the engineering problems they have to solve are more bonkers than the astrophysical problems we want to solve with the things they build 😅
This image perfectly conveys just how huge the 100-m dish of the Green Bank Telescope is. I had the chance to visit it a few years ago, back when I lived in the US, and the view from the receiver room is stunning. Although I must admit that looking down through the mesh floor was... "an experience" 😵💫 😅
Started boiling some Weißwurst without realising I'm all out of sweet mustard, and stores are closed today. Should I...
(a) Go out and buy mustard in a gas station.
(b) Use sriracha, the only other sauce I happen to have at home right now, and risk being deported from Germany.
@astro_jcm 🤣
When I lived in Germany, I used the very strong French Dijon mustard (because the Weißwurst was too sweet for me). They didn't deport me but meanwhile, as a German, I live in the country of the best mustard. Dijon mustard in every supermarket. 😁
'Scavengers Reign' is one of the best #SciFi#tv shows I've ever seen. HBO –oops, sorry, 'Max'– killing it is so dumb. I don't trust #Netflix much more in this sense, but if the show can have a second life there then so be it. While season 1 was pretty self-contained, I really want to keep exploring this fascinating world.
Paranal Observatory was my home away from home for many years. In this blog post Vanessa Peidro Cid, the Head of Paranal Logistics and Facilities, takes us on a behind-the-scenes tour of what it takes to run this small "town" in the Atacama Desert. A lovely piece by Elena Reiriz Martínez, one of our communication interns at ESO.
Happy #BlackHoleWeek to those who celebrate! Here's a pic I took a few years ago back when I worked at ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile. One of our 8.2 m telescopes was pointing at the centre of the #MilkyWay, home to Sagittarius A*, a #BlackHole 4 million times more massive than the #Sun.
Astronomers devoted almost a century to unmask this beast:
@DelRider The laser excites sodium atoms in a layer 80-90 km above the ground, making them glow. This creates an artificial "star" that we can use to monitor atmospheric turbulence in real time, correcting it with a fast deformable mirror.
EDIT: forgot to mention that it's yellowish because it has a wavelength of 589 nanometres, chosen to excite those sodium atoms.