Building a $1BN Mega-Telescope in the Desert

This construction project is truly out of this world.

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[cranelord]

Im a crane operator and I am extremely jealous of those operators. Once in a lifetime job you could tell your grandchildren about.

[paradox...]

"Extremely Large Telescope"

Simple. To the point. I like it.

[ebx]

This is my favorite of all the B1M videos to date. As I'm 68 now, I hope I live to see some of it's first images.

[Tod_oMal]

Please keep track of this development for future videos. It is very interesting. Thanks.

[gaba]

11:50 I don’t comment often, but this is an important clarification: radio telescopes do not 'listen' to space—they see it in a different wavelength of light. Radio telescopes are highly specialised instruments that observe the radio portion of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum, capturing light at much lower energies than visible light.

Our eyes only detect a narrow slice of the EM spectrum, which we perceive as visible light. But there’s so much more beyond that range! Radio waves are much longer wavelengths than visible light, allowing radio telescopes to detect objects and phenomena hidden by cosmic dust that would otherwise obscure our view. This capability lets us peer into regions of space opaque to optical telescopes, like the centres of galaxies or the birthplaces of stars. Radio astronomy has even allowed us to observe some of the earliest structures in the universe, giving us a unique window into the cosmos that goes far beyond what we could see with optical instruments.

In short, radio telescopes are seeing devices that reveal a whole universe hidden at radio wavelengths—not listening devices. Hope this helps clarify!

[MConnolly]

Their naming conventions are still easier to understand than most

[BigDad]

Playing Pachelbel canon broke me. It was the last song I listened to with my dog as I knew I was gonna have to put him down. Staring at the stars in the video while it played broke my heart but I hope he's up there waiting for me.

[franug]

Yaay, Chile! As a Chilean who works in infraestructure projects, I've been following your channel for years, so I'm glad to see something in my country showcased❤ great to see you talked about the advances we have in building earthquake-prone infraestructure. It's pretty amazing to see how the Atacama (which I highly recommend visiting btw, especially San Pedro de Atacama) is being turned into a giant science experiment!

[ovig]

Although I am no engineer or scientist, I am jealous of those whom are directly involved with this project. Can only imagine how proud and excited they are to be a part of this. This is the sort of news I wanna see covered on tv.

[Scott.Lemon.]

Fred, I'm sure I can speak for a lot of your US viewers when I say thank you. Your channel is a much-needed palate cleanser in the midst of presidential election chaos. Also, the depth and research you put into your videos is superb. Excellent as always, sir!

[myri]

Amazing!, This is what makes me proud my country is spending money on.

[davidisherwood]

Thanks for making this video. I work as an engineer at the UKATC in Edinburgh, where we are designing and manufacturing some of the instruments for this and many other telescopes! It will be great to see more videos like this of other projects, theres alot of cool construction projects ongoing in astronomy currently!

[Centurian]

I bet Fred could level a mountain with those big arms

[MrFoxxRaven]

Humans are so cool, literally moving mountains to see the stars. ❤

[_dreko]

They should've called it the BFT; but, I suppose the ELT is still good.

[robinhodgkinson]

A little more on active optics… each of the mirror segments “wobble” microscopically in real time under computer control, to compensate for thermal distortion of the light traveling through the atmosphere, thereby correcting the image, which is normally the bane of ground based optical telescopes and essential to such powerful magnifications achievable by the ELT. This negates much of the advantage that space based optical telescopes like Hubble have… or more exactly, had. What amazing technology!

[vitalii-dan]

This is my favorite B1M episode!
I'm so glad Europe finally did something so cool! 🌌🇪🇺

[giedrewhatnot]

Having been on top of Mauna Kea and numerous telescopes there, this certainly makes it a reason for a long haul flight. Thank you!

[mf_from_hell]

Tom Scott made a very comprehensive video about this project as well, focusing more on the insane development process of the mirror.

[dongyschlontong-ckxg]

8:30 They should call the next one the Biggus Dickus Telescope.