Telescopes in the Atacama - CCAT and ALMA

[Rick]

US and UK unite for $100m telescope

Scientists in the UK and the US have joined forces to build a new $100m, 25 metre infrared telescope in the high Chilean desert. The latest addition to the team, the University of Boulder, Colorado, signed on late last week.

The Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope, or CCAT, is designed to work alongside the proposed Atacama Large Millimeter Array, ALMA. This is also planned for construction in Chile. The idea is that CCAT will scan the skies for interesting things, and ALMA will be able to zoom in for a closer look.

More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/21/dollars100m_telescope/

[Rick]

 The first European-built receiver for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (Alma) is due to leave the UK for its permanent home in Chile.

Alma will be the largest radio telescope array to be built, comprising 66 12m-wide antenna dishes.

The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Ral) in Oxfordshire will assemble and test 26 of the receivers that detect the faint signals from the antennas.

More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7961049.stm