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Thursday 15 September 2011

Working on the GranTeCan dome


Working on the massive dome shutter of GranTeCan
Working on the massive dome shutter of GranTeCan

GranTeCan is the biggest optical telescope in the world, and it's hard to convey the sheer size of it in a photograph.  The telescope itself weighs 485 tonnes.  You could fit an tennis court inside the dome, and the top of the dome is 41 m above the ground.  But you can't see any of that in a photograph.

Working on the massive dome shutter of GranTeCan, Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, La Palma
Working on the massive dome shutter of GranTeCan


Luckily for me, the engineers did some maintenance on the massive dome recently. Once you have people in the photograph, you get an idea of the size.

GranTeCan, the Big Canarian Telescope

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