Overwhelmingly Large Telescope
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The Overwhelmingly Large Telescope (OWL) is a conceptual design by the European Southern Observatory organization for a telescope which is intended to have a single aperture of 100 meters in diameter.
Whilst this design would not exceed the angular resolving power of interferometric telescopes, it would have exceptional light-gathering and imaging capacity which would greatly increase the depth to which mankind could explore the universe.
If built, it would be the largest optical telescope ever constructed. It has been claimed that OWL would have more mirror surface than that of all previous professional telescopes put together.
All proposed designs for the OWL are variations on a segmented mirror, since there is no technology available to build a monolithic 100-meter mirror. The operation of a segmented mirror is somewhat more complicated than a monolithic one, requiring careful alignment of the segments (a technique called cophasing). Experience gained in existing segmented mirrors (for example, the Keck telescope) suggests that the mirror proposed for the OWL is feasible.
See also
- List of optical telescopes
- Very Large Telescope
- Giant Magellan Telescope
- Wikipedia Project: Telescopes