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Revision as of 14:44, 25 November 2002 by 213.253.40.183 (talk) (* )(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Very Large Telescope is an optical telescope currently under construction.
It will be located at the Paranal Observatory on Cerro Paranal, a 2,635-m high mountain in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.
It consists of a group of large telescopes, some of which are already in operation, with a central interferometer which will be used to resolve fine features.
In its full interferometric operating mode, the VLT is intended to achieve an effective angular resolution of 0.001 arcsecond at a wavelength of 1 µm. This is an angle of 0.000000005 radians, equivalent to resolving a target 2 meters across at the distance between the Earth and Moon.
This should easily resolve the 5-metre wide Lunar Module bases left on the Moon by the Apollo moon missions, and a group of European scientists intends to do just that.