How Large Can A Telescope Actually Be?

Here is a more information from wikipedia on ESO (The European Southern Observatory) which is enormous.  They are also constructing another one right now that will surpass ESO.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO, formally: European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere; French:Observatoire européen austral) is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organisation for astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organisation employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €131 million.[1] Its observatories are located in northern Chile.

ESO has built and operated some of the largest and most technologically advanced telescopes. These include the New Technology Telescope, an early pioneer in the use of active optics, and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror8.2 metre across, and four smaller auxiliary telescopes. The Atacama Large Millimeter Array observes the universe in the millimetre and submillimetrewavelength ranges, and is the world’s largest ground-based astronomy project to date. It was completed in March 2013 in an international collaboration by Europe (represented by ESO), North America, East Asia and Chile.

We are looking forward to ever increasingly detailed pics from the next decade as these enormous arrays keep getting more advanced.



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