Telescope's mirrors will be recycled into one

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat The new mirror which is currently in the UA mirror lab will be part of the new Multiple Mirror Telescope on Mt. Hopkins. The current observatory telescope will be closed March 1 for the construction of the new telescope.

This mirror will be placed into a new MMT telescope - an instrument that will allow researchers to see an area of the sky 200 times larger than before.

The current MMT telescope will be taken apart March 1 and recycled into a new one that will reduce a blurring effect the Earth's atmosphere has on its images, said Craig Foltz, director of the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory.

"It will have an integrated system that will correct for the distortions of the Earth's atmosphere," Foltz said of the $20 million project, approved more than a decade ago by the University of Arizona and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Laboratory.

The MMT's existing housing and support structure, which will be recycled for the new telescope, will be the first procedure of its kind in the field.

"This is the first time that I know of that there's been a major productive scientific telescope that's been shut down like this," Foltz said, predicting it will be operational for scientific studies by 1999.

For nearly 20 years, the current MMT has pulled light from distant stars and near galaxies. In 1979, Foltz said, the MMT was the third largest optical telescope in the world.

Instead of the current telescope's six multiple mirrors, it will be rebuilt with a single mirror. This new mirror will allow the telescope to collect 2.5 times more light, Foltz said.

"The Earth, like anyplace else in the universe, is being flooded by photons of the objects of interest and we are collecting as much of that light as we can," said J.T. Williams, MMT project engineer.

The new mirror has a diameter of 6.5 meters because it was the widest the building could accommodate, he said.

The largest mirror in the world - at 11.4 meters in diameter - is currently being cast for the UA-owned Large Binocular Telescope atop Mount Graham.

Foltz predicted the MMT will remain useful for at least 25 years - despite light pollution from nearby towns.

Light pollution from nearby houses produces a high background on the telescope's images, rendering fainter objects invisible, Williams said.

The mirror for the scope has been cast and polished and is ready for mounting. Most pieces of the new telescope are complete, though unassembled.

Engineers must now find a way to lug the telescope's pieces up the steep, narrow road leading to the observatory, and apply finishing touches to its finer parts.

The observatory will be closed for six weeks beginning March 1 as engineers disassemble the existing telescope and attempt to truck a metal dummy mirror, the same size and weight as the real mirror, up the mountain.