The Magellan telescopes are large
custom built telescopes. They were built by the Carnegie Institution
of Washington. They are located in Chile. The telescopes were built
on the behave of the University of Michigan, the University of
Arizona, the University of Harvard, and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. Many people use these telescopes, including
professors, Ph.D. Students, and postdoctoral astronomers. Each
University shares the time equal on the telescopes.
The Magellan telescopes are very large.
The main mirrors are f/1.25 paraboloids. Each of the mirrors are made
of borosilicate glass and they weigh 21,000 pounds each. It took a
really long time to build each mirror. It took 6 months to build the
mold that the glass mirrors were made in. It then took 2 days to put
the glass into the molds. After the glass was placed into the molds,
it took 3 months for the glass to cool. Lastly, each of the
mirrors had to be polished for several months. It also took a lot of
time for the telescopes mount and track to be built.
The Magellan telescopes staring
operating in the early 2000s.
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