Stardate 20010804.1036 (On Screen): I've written before about my admiration for the engineers involved in the European Southern Observatory because of their work on the supremely elegant VLT. The VLT consists of 4 8.2 meter scopes which will have the ability to work together, but even when working alone are already among the largest scopes in the world. Antu, all by its lonesome, has already yielded some superb images because of its adaptive optics and other advances in its design. But that's nothing.
The OWL project, if approved, will produce a telescope with a 100 meter main mirror. The mirror and the assembly which holds it and its secondary optics will weigh a whopping 13,500 tons (which is about the size of a USN cruiser). In fact, it will be so huge that some of its secondary mirrors will be as large as the largest scopes in existence now. They're completely serious about this and their work looks practical, albeit immense and spectacularly expensive. It remains to be seen whether they can convince the governments of Europe to fund the project, but given their undeniable success with the VLT, there's a chance. OWL stands for "OverWhelmingly Large" and they mean every word of it. Go get 'em, boys! (discuss)
