What's New? Archive
TMT Enclosure Design
In December 2005, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project
selected an innovative spherical “calotte” design for the observatory
enclosure. This creative choice is a breakthrough in telescope
protection and science performance and it breaks the existing
cost-growth paradigm for the construction and operation of larger
and larger observatories.
Read more in the TMT Enclosure Design
poster from the January 2006 AAS meeting (pdf)
TMT Week
Dr. Stephen Strom
Nearly 90 scientists and engineers, drawn from within the Thirty
Meter Telescope (TMT) partnership and the broader astronomical
community met in Aspen, Colorado, from September 27-30 to assess
progress toward achieving the highest priority ground-based
goal articulated by the most recent decadal survey: designing
a Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope by the middle of this decade,
so that construction can begin prior to 2010.
Read the article from the NOAO Newsletter (pdf)
George Angeli gives talk to USC engineering
students
October 2005
George Angeli, TMT System Engineer was invited to give a TMT
talk at University of Southern California. On Oct 14, 2005 he
attended a luncheon and presented at the Engineering Honors
Colloquium. After lunch George was escorted to the meeting room
were the talk started at 1pm. With cameras rolling George presented
to approximately 80 students ranging from freshmen to seniors
in all majors. The presentation is now available as a sreaming
RealVideo. Please choose your connection speed below:
Interview with Dr. Stephen Strom
Associate Director for GSMT development at NOAO’s NIO
Steve recently sat down with us to answer a few questions about
the Thirty Meter Telescope from the perspective of the National
Optical Astronomy Observatory, a key project partner in the
TMT. This 12'32 interview is available for download as
an 11 MB MP3 file.
GSMT AND JWST
Looking Back to the Future of the Universe
History will record that American scientists launched one of
humankind’s greatest intellectual adventures early in the 20th
century. Building giant telescopes that dwarfed their predecessors,
astronomers began to wrestle with our ancient, most compelling
mysteries: Where are we? What are we? And where do we come
from? These giant machines of glass and steel, growing
decade by decade, revealed a Universe of intimidating size and
imponderable age, but more remarkably, one within human understanding.
Read more in GSMT AND JWST (pdf).
New NSF Facility Plan 2005
The U.S. National Science Foundation has released its
2005 plan for major science & engineering research facilities
of the future, including the Thirty Meter Telescope.
My Summer Vacation in February
Gary H. Sanders, TMT Project Manager
Yes, in February. I know that readers of this page
are now enjoying the beginning of summer and school is now out
and so the summer vacation trek begins. But that is a Northern
Hemisphere view. My summer vacation was in February. In Chile.
There it was summer.
Interview with Steve Key
Steve Key graduated with honors from California State Polytechnic
University of Pomona on June 11, 2005, with a B.S. degree
in architecture. The subject of Steve’s thesis was the support
facility for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). He is currently
working toward his architectural license in the State of California,
and intends to continue his education in graduate school.
At the request of TMT staff, Steve
answered a few questions about his thesis and his unusual
perspective on the project.
The Thirty Meter Telescope (Top Stories)
Richard Ellis, Steele Family Professor of Astronomy and director
of the Caltech Optical Observatories, will present "A
Sharper View of Cosmic History with the Thirty Meter Telescope (pdf)." At
4 p.m. on June 20, in Beckman Institute auditorium. Sponsored
by the Caltech Management Association.
tmt.org and How We Came To Be
Gary Sanders March 2005
You cannot do anything these days without a Web presence. And
if you are developing the world’s largest telescope, there will
be broad public interest. So you need a good Web presence. Read
more...
"10 Telescopes That Will Rock Your
Universe"
Video Clip from CNN March 25,
2005
This video clip from CNN Headline News interview with Popular
Science Magazine’s Senior Editor Michael Moyer includes a discussion
of the Thirty Meter Telescope.
View Clip [3:30 running
time, Windows Media, 3 MB]
TMT Presentation Slides from the American
Astronomical Society Meeting
Gary Sanders January 2005
The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Project is engaged in a design
and development phase. TMT is proposed as a private-public partnership
of the California Institute of Technology and the University
of California (partners in the earlier CELT design study), AURA
(designers of the earlier GSMT concept), and the Canadian ACURA
consortium (designers of the VLOT concept). The partners are
developing a 30 meter diameter, finely segmented filled aperture
telescope with seeing-limited and diffraction-limited capabilities
to address the broad range of GSMT science goals. The paper
will present the status of the project development and telescope
and instrument design. Download
Presentation [1.5 MB pdf] |
