The European Extremely Large Telescope
It may sound it like it was named by Blackadder, but the European Extremely Large Telescope has just been backed by the Government.
I’m all for this level of support for science, provided it’s done correctly.
Many might think that it is a pity the telescope is to be built in Chile, but then the weather and atmosphere there is so much better. The biggest telescope in the UK; the Isaac Newton Telescope was actually moved from Sussex to the Canary Islands for this reason.
I suppose the name isn’t as good as that for the proposed Overwhelmingly Large Telescope, which wasn’t built, as it was probably too difficult.
The Anonymous Widower 
It makes sense to build the telescope in a place where it will actually be able to see better. And I also think the name is, well, a little cheesy. But heck, LHC stands for “Large Hadron Collider”, doesn’t it?
Comment by David Yerle | March 4, 2013 |