Photography

World's largest optical telescope gains a powerful tool, with LUCIFER

World's largest optical telescope gains a powerful tool, with LUCIFER
Installing LUCIFER 1 at the Large Binocular Telescope
Installing LUCIFER 1 at the Large Binocular Telescope
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A high-mass star forming region inside the giant molecular cloud S255, at a distance of about 8000 light-years away from Earth, as seen by LUCIFER
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A high-mass star forming region inside the giant molecular cloud S255, at a distance of about 8000 light-years away from Earth, as seen by LUCIFER
Installing LUCIFER 1 at the Large Binocular Telescope
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Installing LUCIFER 1 at the Large Binocular Telescope
CAD drawing of LUCIFER's complex interior and optomechanical elements
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CAD drawing of LUCIFER's complex interior and optomechanical elements
LUCIFER's multi object spectroscopic unit, with the robot grabbing a mask from the storage magazine
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LUCIFER's multi object spectroscopic unit, with the robot grabbing a mask from the storage magazine
LUCIFER's main commissioning team
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LUCIFER's main commissioning team
LUCIFER installation and cabling at LBT
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LUCIFER installation and cabling at LBT
LUCIFER in integration-lab at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
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LUCIFER in integration-lab at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
LUCIFER in the LBT lab during re-integration tests
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LUCIFER in the LBT lab during re-integration tests
The dwarf galaxy NGC 1569, located 6.2 million light-years from Earth, as seen by LUCIFER
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The dwarf galaxy NGC 1569, located 6.2 million light-years from Earth, as seen by LUCIFER
The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham in south-eastern Arizona
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The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham in south-eastern Arizona
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The world’s largest optical telescope is about to get a lot better, thanks to LUCIFER. No, no one’s made a deal with the Devil - LUCIFER is a new near-infrared camera/spectrograph system being added to the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham in south-eastern Arizona. The tool has been in development for over a decade, and is now ready to offer astronomers “spectacular insights into the universe, from the Milky Way up to extremely distant galaxies.” Its large field of view and high resolution will allow for unprecedented observation of star-forming regions, which were previously difficult to view due to dust clouds.

Currently operating in a half-finished state, LUCIFER will ultimately consist of two twin cameras, LUCIFER 1 and LUCIFER 2. Number 1 is already complete and in use, with 2 due in early 2011. They will be mounted at the focus point of the LBT’s two 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) telescope mirrors. In order to observe the near-infrared wavelength range (NIR), they will both be cooled to -213C (-351.4F). Even at this extremely low temperature, a robotic arm can swap in and out different laser-cut slit-masks, which allow for the simultaneous spectroscopy of about two dozen objects. At normal temperatures, users can also switch between three different cameras that use 18 different filters, depending on the required resolution.

CAD drawing of LUCIFER's complex interior and optomechanical elements
CAD drawing of LUCIFER's complex interior and optomechanical elements

"Together with the large light gathering power of the LBT, astronomers are now able to collect the spectral fingerprints of the faintest and most distant objects in the universe" said LBT Director Richard Green. "After completion of the LBT adaptive secondary mirror system to correct for atmospheric perturbation, LUCIFER will show its full capability by delivering images with a quality that are otherwise only obtained from space-based observatories."

The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham in south-eastern Arizona
The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham in south-eastern Arizona

LUCIFER was developed through a partnership between several research groups in Germany, the US and Italy. It is being built by a consortium of five German institutes, led by the Center for Astronomy of Heidelberg University (Landessternwarte Heidelberg, LSW) along with the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg (MPIA), the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching (MPE), the Astronomical Institute of the Ruhr-University in Bochum (AIRUB) as well as the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim (Hochschule Mannheim).

All images courtesy the Max Planck Society

View gallery - 10 images
2 comments
2 comments
Daniel Plata Baca
Great! A Decade! let´s see what they find! woooo....
Christopher Erickson
The LBT is NOT the world's largest optical telescope.
Currently the Gran Telescopio Canarias is the biggest at 10.4 meters while the LBT has two smaller, 8.4 meter mirrors.
And if you try to twist the math and add the two 8.4 meter mirrors together and count them as one larger scope then again, it is not the biggest telescope. That would be the twin Keck 10 meter mirror telescopes. And the twin Keck mirrors were designed to be used together for interferometry, just like the LBT.