Abstract
The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) has been examined as a prototype for an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) with a 33-meter diameter primary mirror. In this paper we examine the feasibility of scaling the HET/ELT up to 100-meters in diameter. In this 100-meter telescope design (called ELTX) the advantages of the tilted Arecibo concept seem to emerge even more strongly. For example the whole primary mirror is below grade and extremely well shielded from wind shake and the Stewart platform which carries the spherical aberration corrector and the instruments is capable of being scaled up to this massive size without any serious problems. Such a design is on track for probable science missions in the next half century.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 405-419 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
| Volume | 4004 |
| Publication status | Published - 2000 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Condensed Matter Physics
Cite this
Ray, F. B., Bash, F. N., Ramsey, L. W., & Sebring, T. (2000). Issues in scaling the ELT up to 100 meters. Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, 4004, 405-419.