Bigger, cheaper telescope starts active use

A telescope designed to give astronomers the advantages of one of the world's largest mirrors at a cost that isn't astronomical has finished its test phase and come into regular use. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at McDonald Observatory (Mt. Fowlkes, TX) has a primary mirror 11 m edge to edge, with an effective viewing area of 9.2 m. It is, therefore, the third-largest optical telescope in the world, behind the two 10-m Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, HI.

Already the instrument is producing results. The first scientific paper based on its observations is scheduled for the January issue of Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Donald Schneider, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA) and a member of the team that tested the HET during its commissioning phase, used the telescope to observe distant quasars and an extremely cool star. Edward Robinson, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin, has used it to observe an x-ray-emitting star in visible light.

"The HET is a radically new design for a telescope and we're just trying to demonstrate that it works," Schneider said. "We're just thrilled with what we've got."