# The ELT in Chile
**URL:** https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478
**Category:** Scuttlebutt
**Created:** [July 15, 2026, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478 "2026-07-15T16:45:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jimrr](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/jimrr)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2026, 4:45pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/1 "2026-07-15T16:45:41Z")
They’ve rotated the soon to be 4,000+ ton space telescope mirror mount. first by hand, then with the motors, it rotates on oil film, probably NOT delo 15-40!. the mirror is about 65 ft. dia. and segmented. it’s a huge undertaking atop those remote mountain tops … in Chile! As usual people wonder why we waste money on such. I replied “I’d rather explore the cosmos than waste money on whirled peas” ! hahahaha
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### Author:  [@Sand\_Pebble](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Sand_Pebble)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2026, 8:27pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/2 "2026-07-15T20:27:27Z")
There’s so much to love about this telescope. 2 of many.
1.) To make the platform for the telescope they buried a bunch of explosives in a mountain & blew the top off. Now that is gett’inr done!
2.) Screw an extremely hard to pronounce scientific name or a telescope named after some dead nerd that no one has ever heard about. The ELT stands for Extremely Large Telescope. Makes sense to me.
> **[🔭 The Extremely Large Telescope receives its extraordinary dome](https://www.techno-science.net/en/news/the-extremely-large-telescope-receives-its-extraordinary-dome-N28400.html)**
>
> On a high desert plateau in Chile, a massive structure is taking shape. The dome of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT)...
> **[Extremely Large Telescope: The Biggest Eye on the Sky](https://www.space.com/40746-extremely-large-telescope.html)**
>
> The world's largest telescope is being built on a mountaintop in Chile. It will be able to directly image rocky exoplanets.
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### Author:  [@jimrr](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/jimrr)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2026, 8:54pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/3 "2026-07-15T20:54:24Z")
they can certainly view our moons mountains but I do not believe they’ll see terrain features on even the closest exo-planets which are ‘only’ 4.5 light years away. they do hope to discern contents of atmospheres and such. Now, using elaborate computer programs to compensate for the ‘‘wavey image’’ resultant from looking thru earths atmosphere the image quality can not compare to Hubble or the JWST, at a certain point the mirrors will get too big and trying to compensate for their weight/flex, glass imperfections and the rest will reach a limitation. The best idea yet for a space based one would be huge, a couple hundred feet or more and would involve utilizing centrifugal force spinning a big blob of silver/mercury or something which would deform to the desired shape of a mirror. some form of this will be the next necessary advancement but designing it on earth presents huge engineering unknowns. ‘‘spinning it up’’ in space also presents many variables.
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### Author:  [@dbeierl](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/dbeierl)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2026, 9:44pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/4 "2026-07-15T21:44:18Z")
> [@jimrr](#):
>
> probably NOT delo 15-40!
Maybe Vactra #2 way oil? Very low stick-slip.
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### Author:  [@jimrr](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/jimrr)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2026, 10:20pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/5 "2026-07-15T22:20:17Z")
I’ve asked AI, you’d think AI in searching thru 78 billion articles could identify the lubricant but it’s probably something we’ve never heard of. I can’t even learn if it is a pressure lube system or not. since it is about .002-.003 thick I’m inclined to think it is a pressure system, we don’t know the surface area either so we can’t compute the psi of the lube vs weight. I’ve read at least two books by authors involved with ELT but engineering stuff like this is a bit beyond them it seems. Lucas Oil Stabilizer, Keep your space telescope running like new !!
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### Author:  [@jimrr](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/jimrr)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2026, 10:42pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/6 "2026-07-15T22:42:05Z")
magnetic levitation studies were supposedly completed by 2007. Other than issues with batt/gen backup, it’s hard to say what’d happen if it dropped .003" when the lights went out!!?
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### Author:  [@Hartley](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Hartley)
#### Post date: [July 16, 2026, 1:55pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/7 "2026-07-16T13:55:45Z")
I’m thinking the “rocky exoplanets” reference meant they think they can image exoplanets smaller than gas giants. I doubt anyone thinks they can image details!
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### Author:  [@Gruntledemployee](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Gruntledemployee)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2026, 5:09pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/8 "2026-07-17T17:09:51Z")
Sci-fi writer John Ringo had a VERY entertaining book series based on paying for space mirrors by selling maple syrup.
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### Author:  [@jimrr](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/jimrr)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2026, 5:23pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/9 "2026-07-17T17:23:38Z")
i just finished a john ringo book! it wasn’t till i was in my 60’s that i realized I had a interest in observing celestial objects or read about such but it
seems i’ve inherited this from my late uncle now? I’ll probably not make much of a night time observer … , well, i could get up after noon, lay off having a few beers after the days ‘work’, eat right, blah blah blah …
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### Author:  [@jimrr](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/jimrr)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2026, 2:02am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/10 "2026-07-19T02:02:03Z")
I’m sure there are uneducated people out there who write scathing editorials about the limitations of stellar observation. The issue is, who the H listens to that?
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### Author:  [@Gruntledemployee](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Gruntledemployee)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 9:46am UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/11 "2026-07-20T09:46:42Z")
There was considerable resistance to trains at one point. Surely moving in excess of 25mph would strike insanity into a mind, and who really needs to go at such unsafe speeds?
Luddites have always been among us.
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### Author:  [@jimrr](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/jimrr)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2026, 1:25pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/the-elt-in-chile/76478/12 "2026-07-20T13:25:05Z")
yea, I remember reading that, there were well found theories (so said) about what could happen at such speeds. but for most of human history the fastest means of getting around was on a horse. and ship, see the eastern med in particular vs the roman routes. now we’ve been stuck at sub 700mph for half a century, time for a change, bring back the booms I say !!!