Building the Giant Magellan Telescope with Dr. James Fanson

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

🔴 More about the Giant Magellan Telescope! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKfPnZWNeNx5itE

[@th3WhiteKnight]

Thank you for letting us common folk to directly see and hear people on the frontier of science. This is genuinely amazing.

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Thanks, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@quantumcat7673]

You are not a common folk. You are just specializing in some other knowledge. You are as unique as this scientist believe me.

[@Sammy-og7ps]

I have two telescopes. I'm just an amateur.

[@wattyler6075]

Never looked thru a telescope. Just found your channel a couple of weeks ago. I love astronomy.

[@hotbit7327]

Checked out, found it's 1 hour 30 min, decided to see 5-10 min, ended up... right, watching it all! Such an incredible project, such a fantastic presentation!

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

So glad you stuck around!

[@michaelconn5889]

My first 4” reflector when I was 10 years old. So many wonderful hours under the night sky. I have an 8” Celestron Schmidt now. Still looking up T 70 years old. That being said I am very concerned about the loss of dark sky locations across the US.

[@arturduchene]

My first telescope experience was when I was 10. (1961). Our neighbor worked for the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona where we lived. He took us kids there to see the telescope. I got to look through the same telescope that Lowell himself used to make his famous observations of the planet Mars. That night Saturn was visible and I could clearly see its beautiful rings. Up to then I had only seen Saturn in a book. To see it with my own eyes through a telescope was an amazing experience for a ten year old kid! I was hooked on astronomy from that point forward. We looked at the Moon too. I was fascinated at the details clearly visible in the telescope but invisible to the naked eye. But Saturn was what I remember most. My childhood thrill was 'magnified' exponentially when I got to see the rings of Saturn close up during the Cassini mission. I followed that mission closely and thought often of how astronomy had grown and changed since I was a ten-year old boy looking at the rings through the Lowell telescope. Thrilling experiences both!

[@Gandalfthewhit]

Yes ive seen Saturnus.... It was breathtaking..... greeting Hans from Holland.

[@chdarwin05]

I was in middle school. We were lucky to have a professor of astrophysicist in the neighborhood. He had build this own telescopes in his back yard. It was my first time to see Jupiter and Saturn. It was a magical night that I never have forgotten.

[@FredPlanatia]

Another fascinating episode of launch pad astronomy. I recognize you're getting better and better at editing and moderating on the fly - not an easy task! I really enjoyed the large number of videos illustrating various aspects of building and operation of the Giant Magellan Telescope. And thanks to yet another gracious guest Dr. Fanson, for staying longer to answer additional questions!

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Thank you so much, I appreciate it. I'm making little tweaks here and there, hoping to improve with every show. I'm glad you're enjoying it!

[@ethorii]

I'm building a 15" f/4.5. Taking forever to complete. Looked through a 12" planetary scope 10 years ago. Everyone should see Mars and Jupiter, Saturn through a telescope. It connects you to space much more than looking at a photo of them.

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

💯

[@ChubbyTeletubby]

I'll never forget pointing my telescope toward Jupiter, and seeing those moon's. I thought I was Galileo!

[@michal_king478]

yeah. Looking at the poles and surface features of mars, knowing there are man made objects there is mind boggling. And seeing the universe in motion is amazing too

[@Arachnos27]

Saturn was the first planet I could make out through my little starter scope, so cool to see the rings!

[@silvertopaz509]

New here. Yes, 8 inch Doby, love it.

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Nice!

[@-MaXuS-]

This was frickin’ awesome! Just amazing. I remember reading about this years ago and to actually hear from someone so intimately involved in making it a reality. I would have loved to hear everything Dr. Fanson know about this amazing telescope. Thanks!!!

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

It was my pleasure and I’m glad you enjoyed it!

[@vincentmorissette6532]

Hello from Quebec City, Canada. I discoverd your channel few weeks ago and I'm blown away by the quality of your content.

[@danielmolnar1037]

Hi I'm new , really love space ,and newer look in one

[@PabloA64]

I was fortunate to be able to see live the shomaker levy 9 crash into Jupiter in 1994, with my 15cm hand made telescope..

[@mobiusm7440]

Hi from Niagara Falls, Canada. Yes I have a 4.5 "reflector. Time to move to a dobson, not sure how long its gonna take. Grinding a 12.5"mirror, slow process. I will get it done. Yeah the costs are the limit. I am motivated, especially when I have spent a night on the 4.5 reflector, makes me frustrated. I want more. I love the science. Name here is Carl.

[@jdbreaux8080]

:47 YES! When Halley's Comet last passed through. Out of curiosity I panned the sky for planets in our solar system. I will never forget seeing Saturn and its rings. Wow, it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It was brilliant and glistened of angelic white light floating in space. Clearly the work of God's artwork. To date I have never seen anything like it. It was life changing. I witnessed it away from the Austin city lights at Reimer's Ranch swimming hole just due east of Milton Reimer Ranch Road starting at dusk. Spent the day at the hole, did some cave exploration, climbed to the top of Enchanted Rock finishing the day with my armature telescope. I could have spent a week there.

[@deftwing]

Love this guy! My absolute favorite channel on KZbin to tune in to on a weekly basis. Keep up the great work Christian!!!

[@maciejbukowski4256]

true - probably the best astro channel on YT (alongside DrBecky)

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Thank you both so much! To be compared to Dr. Becky is quite an honor!

[@w7mjr]

I missed this live but just got caught up now. Very interesting. I was excited to hear about the plan to go "on sky" with 4 segments. it will be nice to get a preview of things to come!

[@tripshh]

my favorite thing is to go out far enough away from light pollution to see the milky way, and then using a telescope. its.... magical.

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Agreed, it's something you can't quite explain until you see it with your own eyes.

[@ridleyroid9060]

That sounds like sci fi, how would you even do that? Sounds mental to a common person like me.

[@Tripskull]

Wow first, and I am absolutely fascinated by space and physics. No. I can't believe I have never looked through a telescope. It's hard to comprehend....

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Glad you enjoyed it, and I totally understand about not getting to look through a telescope. You will though!

[@cryptolicious3738]

GMT will be awesome. christian, fun fact: one GMT mirror can just fit inside a StarShip so we could move GMT to the moon in a few trips :)

[@Shadare]

If we refuel at lunar gateway could those same starships get it to L2?

[@theblackswan2373]

I have and use a couple of small telescopes. I hope to make my next between 16 and 24 inches. Time will tell.

[@TakeNoneForTheTeam]

I got to attend with Dr Storrs. Amazing!!!

[@johnperry3593]

That was a fantastic video! So much information from two extremely knowledgable sources!! Im looking forward to future video interview/discussions. I will stay curious, until next time!!

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Ender_Spy]

I remember going to the mirror lab when I was in middle school, I even got a sample of the cutter they us to flatten the mirror

[@mikestachowski9960]

This is absolutely an amazing engineering marvel.

[@maciejbukowski4256]

Please arrange such a talk with someone from the E-ELT team as this will be the first and the largest of the new generation of ground-based telescopes

[@Shadare]

Speaking of "follow up instruments" what kind of extra data could an optical spectrum wide(ish)-angle telescope like this add about near-stellar objects like "Omuamua"?

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

It would be extremely useful for such objects, yes!

[@christopherholmes1512]

IV never looked thru a telescope.. and Im very excited about James web launching and the new promises for astronomy and furthering our understanding of our place and origins in the universe

[@jmarty1000]

If I had time on the 'scope, I'd try to find a good Einstein Ring to look at, because demodulating the gravitationally lensed image is a very interesting technique that will require large amounts of refinement before we ever use it to observe exoplanets.

[@terryburge6763]

Are the six mirrors around the center duplicates of one another or is each one individually designed for the off-center position(s)? Terry

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

They’re all duplicates of each other in that they all are ground to the same off-axis shape.

[@st3althyone]

It’s so amazing how they use sodium lasers as artificial stars to adjust the adaptive optics and get the best possible image.

[@justinesportsmedicine]

Not an Astronomer, Physicist, or Chemist but I have a question. Thank you Dr. Christian Ready and Dr. Fanson apologize for being tardy to this discussion. Dr. Ready I really appreciate the videos on JWST. But your question to Dr. Fanson and his answer was quite compelling on his decision to use a circular configuration and not the previously used hex shape due to blurring caused by the higher number of segments in the hex form. I understand that aluminum is frequently used because of its superior reflective properties I also looked up the melting requirement of "Al" and 1220 F is very hot but my question is would it not be more practical to use liquid "Al" layered on the mirror (direct or separated) to eliminate distortions and blurring I read that direct heating is not possible maybe liquefaction with strong acids or bases as this would eliminate the need for segmentation?

[@lordpatricksbull]

Yes man I love yr videos. And everything that you talk about with space and stuff..keep up the wonderful work bro

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Thanks, I appreciate it!

[@patricknelson]

Totally unrelated to this video, but wanted to submit a request: Would you be interested in maybe doing a video about PSR J1719-1438b? I can’t find any online and I figured it’d be a great one to watch for others. Reading about it, it’s star (a millisecond pulsar) and how it came to be is so utterly fascinating (so extreme yet it also makes a lot of sense). Imagine: A “planet sized diamond”; or better: What would happen if you could *expose the core* of another star? 😳 *EDIT:* I actually found _one_ video on this planet/pulsar, turns out it was uploaded by Swinburne University of Technology and features the astronomer who discovered it.

[@rhoddryice5412]

Link?

[@patricknelson]

@@rhoddryice5412 I hesitated since I didn’t want my comment to get filtered for spam. So I’ll post in a follow up comment to this one immediately. If you don’t see it, got filtered. Search for “Swinburne University planet made of diamond” to find it yourself if the next comment doesn’t show 😊

[@rhoddryice5412]

@@patricknelson thanks

[@patricknelson]

@@rhoddryice5412 ... and I guess it got deleted/blocked. See!

[@reubanrajan2679]

I am a noob in the grand game of astronomy 😁. Thank you for creating these contents!

[@kylorenkardashian79]

does your university offer a online program with your classes? I would love to be a student. you inspire me Sir

[@kylorenkardashian79]

I'm 37. I have a bachelor in humanities as well as a bachelor's in hydrology (water science) but I believe my purpose in this world in theoretical physics but I don't know how to approach it at my age. I would love a mentor or at least a amazing teacher. Keep up with the great work Prof

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Thank you so much! Although I'm teaching online due to the pandemic, we don't have a formal online astronomy/physics offering at this time. I'm probably not the best mentor for theoretical physics since I'm not a theoretical physicist myself, but perhaps there's a local university you can get in touch with? Cheers!

[@ultrametric9317]

I don't know why he said "stray light" - he means diffraction. That reduces contrast. If you want to see the effect, look through a screen with binoculars.

[@icare7151]

Greetings from Cheyenne Mountain ⛰️ Well done.

[@leecowell8165]

How large is the primary mirror? 24.6 meters. Big a lot bigger than JWST. However ELT's is 39 meters (comprised of 798 individual segments). Its also currently being built in Atacama due to come online in 2028. Its currently about 50% complete and it too will have laser based atmospheric correction. Thus Magellan here is already obsolete compared to ELT. In fact there's a 30 meter scope attempting to be built in Hawaii (but its having difficulty due to native Indian protests that are ongoing). I cannot even imagine what these instruments are gonna discover regarding our universe.

[@franciscogana667]

Hello from Chile, I have used a telescope but with my glasses is a little difficult

[@ridleyroid9060]

"Have you ever used a telescope?" Ill be in the 0.5% here to answer Ive never even seen a telescope irl

[@kagannasuhbeyoglu]

Respect 👏

[@ophello]

Wouldn’t you have to spin the entire mirror off axis in order to get the right surface geometry? I have never understood this.

[@will2see]

Definitely QUASARS! And BLAZARS too! ;-) Yes, and reverberation mapping.

[@rJaune]

I wonder what the engineering challenges were to building the housing structure for such a large telescope?

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Funny you should ask as I wanted to talk a little about the enclosure but didn't get the chance. Next time!

[@YaR0MyR]

Hey, I am new watcher on this channel, and yes I had luck to watch the skies through the telescope before. Visiting true professional observatory was one of the most breathtaking things in my life, traveling along with the zoom of the telescope is what every thinking being should take. I wonder and my question would be why telescopes are not build in polar regions? Lets say, Antarctica? It has most dry and thin layer of atmosphere and it rests in the dark half of a year? Also it has mountains high enough to be called really big.

[@stefanmayer444]

I have no idea, but maybe logistics and overall harsh conditions?

[@zapfanzapfan]

I'd definitely use it to spy on our neighbors at Proxima :-) One of the coolest details is that the platform they have made on the mountain has enough room for another telescope in the future. That mirror lab will have work for years and years to come.

[@bobsnabby2298]

Did you forgot the ESA ELT = Extremely Large Telescope which will be ready somewhere around 2026 with 39m mirror, so way before Magellan, way larger mirror. Is this Magellan a budget version of ELT?

[@pedrog.formaldemocrata1934]

Thx for the good contents 😃

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

My pleasure, and thanks!

[@dehydratedwatr]

Hi! Im new! I have looked through a telescope but i didnt see much. Im from the brightly lit city.

[@christopherreed2694]

why dont we make 3 webb telescopes and hook them together?

[@ProperLogicalDebate]

I or others young and old would be able to look through an eyepiece while the large telescope is slewing from star to star going to your destination star. Nothing but some glass and some mirrors between the stars and a Mk 1 eyeball.

[@brendanwhite3731]

Hi I'm loving the facts of our planets around us Brendan IRL

[@gabi-dh9eo]

Great video 😄

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Thanks 😁

[@markpodesta4605]

Good video. We need to understand the Universe much more.

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Thanks, and I agree:)

[@georgeklauss1696]

Yes had a 6” light bucket

[@christianvulpescu1398]

In my opinion, more large telescopes should be located on the northern hemishere. There are a lot on the southern. There you get in trouble even to polar aline the scope properly. 😉😀

[@GH-oi2jf]

The GMT is located at 29° South, so can see a considerable part of the northern sky.

[@gregb3443]

Hello! I'm new here and I don't believe I look through a telescope before.

[@iliagofman]

Oh yeah and whilst looking through a telescope at the moon and through a microscope at various things in college biology, I've taken pics from my phone and they turned out not bad

[@gerrittenberkdeboer7763]

how the heck do you clean those (billion dollar)mirrors?

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Once in space, you don’t. That’s why they had to keep it so clean while it was still on the ground.

[@Winkkin]

Someone should invent differential spectragraphic analysis to look for planets. Comppare the spectra of the star taken at several different periods of time to see if theres a planet pulling on the spectra. Might work with greater resolution than the radial velocity method for finding planets. I'd imagined that the GAIA data could be used in this way.

[@Winkkin]

ps: From Milwaukee and I've been out for society open house nights on several occasions. Much thanks for all the fun, Dr. Fanson.

[@rohitkorde7984]

Yes. I have looked through a telescope

[@jstlookng]

No, i just got to see your video first time, I hope my no is still good 😊

[@SkyHighMelody]

Why the hell are you interrupting the interview all of the time to thank supporters? You have to choose between good contend and fanbase- care sometimes. There is a bottleneck to how far you can take the approach you're using and this interview got really annoying to watch because of all those interruptions and non-relevant detours. It's also evident that the interviewed party got annoyed.

[@robbyelsea2972]

I haven't but would love to

[@fullondeep7176]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS- i call 3 telescopes my own!! BAAAAAAAM!!

[@chadgessele7452]

What would I do if I got my dirty little mitts on observing time? Tell them to hook up the best imaging instrument they have, roll dice to determine pan & tilt and then let it rip. I think it would be a thrill to see what random brings us. Could be nothing, could be magnificent.

[@ACE999]

Would it be able to give sufficient resolution to see the Apollo landings and junk left behind to put the final nail in Flat-Head philosophies?

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

Unfortunately, no. I think we'd need an aperture of around 200 meters to see them from Earth. But LRO has seen them from lunar orbit and they still deny they're real. Oh well.

[@ACE999]

@@LaunchPadAstronomy Appreciate you answering.

[@FirestormX9]

@@ACE999 Something like material or junk left on the surface of the moon shouldn't be hugely mysterious at the current level of space observation technology. This is an odd requirement.. 🤔

[@ACE999]

@@FirestormX9 Still outside ocular possibilities, if you read the previous. It's a little like a gnat on a headlight 200 miles away.

[@JamesBond-vx4st]

Unfortunately I have never looked in a Telescope

[@peterpalumbo1963]

Your unspoken problem is SPACEX and STARLINK. When the system is up and running you can kiss earth based astronomy good by.

[@kennyg1358]

Don't be ridiculous

[@widescreennavel]

Dark Star crashes, turning its light into ashes...

[@LaunchPadAstronomy]

😉

[@igiboi0129]

👏👏👏👏💝

[@cbuchner1]

Why just build one if you can also build two for double the price? We could also use one for the northern hemisphere.

[@enigman44]

I hope this telescope works, but I doubt it. There are so many parts that have to work perfectly the first time, that if any one of them fails, the entire thing will become a huge black eye for NASA. And unlike the Hubble, there is no way that it can be repaired, and it can't even be reached for a repair if it was possible! Besides, the ELT can do the job better and it's on the Earth!

[@kennyg1358]

I assume you are talking about the James Webb not the GMT.

[@jonathonpayne4922]

no what are your thoughts on this....Black holes spins right? Well most do right? Well there talk about maybe us living inside of a black hole? Well wouldn't there be a way to tell if the universe its self is spinning?

[@bkashokkrishnabka3140]

🙏

[@ultrametric9317]

It's "Gran Telescopio Canarias", not "Canaris".

[@mbt2310]

Hi i,am new , hellowww I never had a look throuw a telescoop.but i was thinking wil james web find ufo,'s. I hope we wil see them soon.i know they are out there.

[@AbcDef-tl2kq]

I would give that time to those who really r deserving.

[@deedeejay5888]

Hey

[@HA-cy4vx]

hello！

[@floridian2023]

W.O.W.

[@eth_ph_cc]

Nope is the answer to your question.

[@jerrys4841]

looking through a telescope - not ever

[@maniescholtz234]

Now

[@jurgenblick5491]

No I have not looked through a Telescope

[@deedeejay5888]

No

[@ianjessamy5895]

No never

[@winky32174]

Yes, BS Photonics, retired

[@moejaime2654]

FARTED !

[@Radio_FM_3123]

The "thing" is a scam, right?

[@bullshitvendor]

Sssshh!

[@bobaloo2012]

Didn't come for a conversation at a 6th grade level. Should be labeled appropriately,, age 9-13...

[@FredPlanatia]

Do the 9-13 year olds you know generally understand about diffraction limits, adaptive optics, spinning glass furnaces, and all the other details I could glean from this episode? Why don't you do graduate work in astronomy instead of looking for your information on YT if you don't like the level here?

[@Deltakitty32780]

No