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How does a project like this even happen? So the Chilean observatory needs a new telescope, and somehow it's built in California? And how do they find these pe

How does a project like this even happen? So the Chilean observatory needs a new telescope, and somehow it's built in California? And how do they find these people to build these telescopes? Is there some kind of hidden niche of experts that go from Zeiss to Canon and then do government work like this? How will this thing be delivered to Chile? How will they hoist it up into the observatory. Even the slightest accident would be devastating. Wish they'd make a documentary of their work, because it sounds like an adventure

bozhark 4y ago
Man, wait until you hear about the JWST
bunabhucan 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_C._Rubin_Observatory#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_C._Rubin_Observatory#Hist... Early development was funded by a number of small grants, with major contributions in January 2008 by software billionaires Charles and Lisa Simonyi and Bill Gates of $20- and $10 million respectively.[30][25] $7.5 million was included in the U.S. President's FY2013 NSF budget request.[31] The Department of Energy is funding construction of the digital camera component by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, as part of its mission to understand dark energy.[32] In the 2010 decadal survey, LSST was ranked as the highest-priority ground-based instrument.[33] NSF funding for the rest of construction was authorized as of 1 August 2014.[17] The lead organizations are:[32] The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to design and construct the LSST camera The National Optical Astronomy Observatory to provide the telescope and site team The National Center for Supercomputing Applications to construct and test the archive and data access center The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy is responsible for overseeing the LSST construction. As of May 2022, the project critical path was the camera installation, integration and testing.[34] In May 2018, Congress surprisingly appropriated much more funding than the telescope had asked for, in hopes of speeding up construction and operation. Telescope management was thankful but unsure this would help, since at the late stage of construction they were not cash-limited.[35] 10m Video on the construction, mentioning "twenty years, over a billion dollars." https://youtube.com/watch?v=kpdLDJXEmys https://youtube.com/watch?v=kpdLDJXEmys
- nullc 4y ago
  If people are confused about why the instrument is in Chile while the funding comes from elsewhere: It's because the high deserts of Chile have some of the best atmospheric conditions in the world for astronomy-- low cloud cover and rain, high altitude, low light polution, and very laminar flow due to the consistent temperatures the air experiences traveling over the ocean. Mauna Kea in Hawaii is another such golden site (with somewhat better median seeing than the site in Chili), but it's fallen out of favor over pressures to return control of the site to indigenous populations.
walrus01 4y ago
> So the Chilean observatory needs a new telescope, and somehow it's built in California? It's located in Chile but typically the high budget observatories there are run and funded by an international consortium of universities and national government funding. They share time on them. It's for the same reason as the telescopes in the Canary Islands.

bozhark 4y ago

Man, wait until you hear about the JWST

bunabhucan 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_C._Rubin_Observatory#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_C._Rubin_Observatory#Hist... Early development was funded by a number of small grants, with major contributions in January 2008 by software billionaires Charles and Lisa Simonyi and Bill Gates of $20- and $10 million respectively.[30][25] $7.5 million was included in the U.S. President's FY2013 NSF budget request.[31] The Department of Energy is funding construction of the digital camera component by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, as part of its mission to understand dark energy.[32] In the 2010 decadal survey, LSST was ranked as the highest-priority ground-based instrument.[33] NSF funding for the rest of construction was authorized as of 1 August 2014.[17] The lead organizations are:[32] The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to design and construct the LSST camera The National Optical Astronomy Observatory to provide the telescope and site team The National Center for Supercomputing Applications to construct and test the archive and data access center The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy is responsible for overseeing the LSST construction. As of May 2022, the project critical path was the camera installation, integration and testing.[34] In May 2018, Congress surprisingly appropriated much more funding than the telescope had asked for, in hopes of speeding up construction and operation. Telescope management was thankful but unsure this would help, since at the late stage of construction they were not cash-limited.[35] 10m Video on the construction, mentioning "twenty years, over a billion dollars." https://youtube.com/watch?v=kpdLDJXEmys https://youtube.com/watch?v=kpdLDJXEmys

nullc 4y ago
If people are confused about why the instrument is in Chile while the funding comes from elsewhere: It's because the high deserts of Chile have some of the best atmospheric conditions in the world for astronomy-- low cloud cover and rain, high altitude, low light polution, and very laminar flow due to the consistent temperatures the air experiences traveling over the ocean. Mauna Kea in Hawaii is another such golden site (with somewhat better median seeing than the site in Chili), but it's fallen out of favor over pressures to return control of the site to indigenous populations.

walrus01 4y ago

> So the Chilean observatory needs a new telescope, and somehow it's built in California? It's located in Chile but typically the high budget observatories there are run and funded by an international consortium of universities and national government funding. They share time on them. It's for the same reason as the telescopes in the Canary Islands.