What Ground - Based Telescopes Will be Available in 2010?

At the time of the NGC meeting in April 1998, only two optical/IR telescopes having diameters greater than 6.5 meters were in routine operation. Yet it is expected that more than a dozen such facilities will be operating just five years from now. Commensurate advances in wide-field imaging capabilities, adaptive optics and detector technology (particularly in the infrared) all point to a period of explosive growth in the field of ground-based, optical/IR astronomy.

Intermediate Telescopes

It is widely believed that, in order to achieve maximum productivity, the new generation of large telescopes (i.e., having diameters greater than 6.5m) should be ``fed" by smaller facilities. A large number of such facilities are now in routine operation and several new 4m-class telescopes are in various stages of design and/or fabrication (e.g. Galileo and SOAR). Tables 1 and 2 list all 4m-class optical/IR telescopes which are likely to be in operation during the upcoming decade. With the exception of UKIRT, most (but by no means all) of the instruments available for scheduling on these telescopes are designed for use in the optical regime -- a reflection of the predominantly optical background of their user communities. Nevertheless, since many of the new 8m-class telescopes will be optimized for IR observations, most of these smaller facilities are heavily committed to the development of infrared instruments. Similarly, most of the existing and planned 4m-class telescopes are, or soon will be, equipped with wide-field CCD cameras.

Large Telescopes

Tables 3 and 4 provide some rudimentary information on the new generation of 8m-class optical/IR telescopes. The columns record the telescope, the properties of the primary mirror, the telescope design, the anticipated ``first light", the partner institutions and a summary of the first-light instruments. For the Keck telescopes, second generation instruments are also included.

Fifteen telescopes having diameters greater than or equal to 6.5m are now either completed, under construction or fully funded. Although final funding for the SALT (South African Large Telescope) has yet to be obtained, this is likely to occur within the year and will raise of the total number of large telescopes to sixteen. The southern hemisphere will experience particularly heavily growth since the number of large telescopes there will rise from zero to at least seven.

One interesting aspect of these new facilties is the diversity of their designs and budgets. By utilizing a segmented mirror design, and by sacrificing full sky access and imaging capabilities, the Hobby-Eberly telescope (built by a consortium of American and German universities) is nearing completion for a total buget of $15M US, not including instruments. By contrast, ESO's VLT program is likely to cost upwards of $0.5B US. Versatility seems to be of importance for the CFHT community. There are associated costs with this choice.

=cmbx12.tfm =cmbx10.tfm =9.0truein =6.75truein =cmss10 =0pt =cmr10 =cmr8 =cmr6 =cmr6 =cmr6 =cmsl8

=cmr8 =cmbx8 =cmbx10 =cmbx12 =cmbx12

 

truein truein 1. 4m-Class Optical-IR Telescopes (Northern Hemisphere)

0=0 =0

10#10

Abbreviations in Tables 1 and 2:

OS = Optical Spectrographs truein WFMC = Wide Field Mosaic Camera

IRS = Infrared Spectrographs truein IFS = Integral Field Spectroscopy

LR = Low Resolution (11#11 1,000) truein AO = Adaptive Optics

MR = Medium Resolution (1,000 12#12 10,000) truein TT = Tip Tilt

HR = High Resolution (13#13 10,000) truein NIR = Near Infrared (1-53#3m)

OI = Optical Imagers truein MIR = Mid Infrared (5-203#3m)

truein IRI = Infrared Imagers

 

truein truein 2. 4m-Class Optical-IR Telescopes (Southern Hemisphere)

0=0 =0

10#10

Abbreviations in Tables 1 and 2:

OS = Optical Spectrographs truein WFMC = Wide Field Mosaic Camera

IRS = Infrared Spectrographs truein IFS = Integral Field Spectroscopy

LR = Low Resolution (11#11 1,000) truein AO = Adaptive Optics

MR = Medium Resolution (1,000 12#12 10,000) truein TT = Tip Tilt

HR = High Resolution (13#13 10,000) truein NIR = Near Infrared (1-53#3m)

OI = Optical Imagers truein MIR = Mid Infrared (5-203#3m)

=cmbx12.tfm =cmbx10.tfm =7.0truein =9.0truein =cmss10 =0pt =cmr10 =cmr8 =cmr6 =cmr6 =cmr6 =cmsl8

=cmr8 =cmbx8 =cmbx10 =cmbx12 =cmbx12

 

truein truein 3. 8m-class Optical-IR Telescopes in 2007 (Northern Hemisphere)

0=0 =0

14#14

1 = interferometer

2 = data archive

 

truein truein 4. 8m-class Optical-IR Telescopes in 2007 (Southern Hemisphere)

0=0 =0

14#14

1 - interferometer

2 - data archive

3 - unfunded as of April 1998

=7.3in