The Giant Magellan Telescope is a ground-based telescope planned for completion in 2016. It will consist of seven, 8.4-meter "primary" mirrors, for a total telescope diameter of 24.5 metres (80 feet). The telescope is expected to have over four times the light-gathering ability of existing instruments. A telescope (from the Greek tele = far and skopein = to look or see; teleskopos = far-seeing) is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects. ... 2016 (MMXVI) will be a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Seven Days of Creation - 1765 book, title page Seven (7) is the sixth successor of one (1). ... The metre, or meter (symbol: m) is the SI base unit of length. ...

The telescope is to be constructed in northern Chile. The design calls for the mirrors to be arranged not as off-axis but instead with a concentric focus, with one mirror in the center and the other six curving around it, giving a symmetrical focal plane. In telecommunication, an off-axis optical system is an optical system in which the optical axis of the aperture is not coincident with the mechanical center of the aperture. ...

The mirrors are being constructed by the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, at a laboratory beneath the university's football stadium. The casting of the first mirror was completed on November 3, 2005, but the time-consuming shaping and polishing remains. Steward Observatorys main office is located on the University of Arizona campus. ... The University of Arizona (UA or U of A) is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. ... Arizona Stadium is an open-air stadium located on the campus of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. ... November 3 is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 58 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The location in northern Chile where the telescope will be installed has not yet been chosen. One possibility is near the Chajnantor plain, seat of the ALMA radiotelescope. Another is at Cerro Las Campanas, near La Serena, place of the Magellan telescopes. Alma may refer to: Canada Alma, Ontario, a small village in Ontario, Canada Alma, Quebec, a town in Quebec, Canada Alma, New Brunswick, a fishing village on the Bay of Fundy Crimea Alma (river) and the site of the Battle of Alma (September 20, 1854) Kazakhstan Almaty, until recently the... La Serena (the serene one) is the second oldest city in Chile. ... The Magellan Telescopes are 6. ...

Organizations

The following is a list of the members of a consortium developing the telescope.

1. Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (OCIW)
2. Harvard University
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
5. Texas A&M University
6. University of Arizona
7. University of Michigan
8. University of Texas at Austin
9. Australian National University

college of staten island The Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) is a foundation established by Andrew Carnegie in 1902 to support scientific research. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) , is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1636,[1] Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning still operating in the United States. ... The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private, coeducational research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where it is joined with the Harvard College Observatory (HCO) to form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). ... Texas A&M University, often called A&M or TAMU for short, is a public, coeducational, research university located in College Station, Texas, USA. It is the flagship[3] institution of the Texas A&M University System. ... The University of Arizona (UA or U of A) is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. ... The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (UM or U of M) is a coeducational public research university in the U.S. state of Michigan. ... The University of Texas at Austin, often called UT or Texas, is a nationally recognized doctoral/research university located in Austin, Texas. ... The Australian National University, or ANU, is a public university located in Canberra, the national capital of Australia. ...

References

• Giant Magellan Telescope home page
• http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/telescope.html
• New Scientist article on the telescope