Artist’s impression of the Extremely Large Telescope. Credit ESO and L Calçada
A cutting-edge component of what will be the world's largest telescope has passed critical tests. HARMONI, being developed in part by scientists at Durham University, will now move to the detailed design phase. The instrument will form part of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) currently under construction in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. Adaptive optics HARMONI will stand eight metres tall, 10 metres long, and six metres wide, and will weigh 40 tonnes. Astronomers and engineers at our Centre for Advanced Instrumentation (CfAI) are developing adaptive optics technology for HARMONI to remove atmospheric blurring so scientists can see distant objects more clearly. Fibre connections Our scientists are also working on another proposed instrument for the ELT, called MOSAIC. They are providing the adaptive optics and designing the mechanical structure for MOSAIC, which will allow astronomers to view different areas of the sky at the same time.
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