China to make largest optical telescope in Asia that is Earth-based James Webb

To compete with other countries' optical astronomical telescopes, China intends to construct a general-purpose optical telescope as soon as possible between 2024 and 2030, with the largest aperture in Asia. The Expanding Aperture Segmented Telescope (EAST) project, as it is known in English, is under the direction of Peking University. According to a Peking University statement, it will be constructed in two phases with diameters of 6 metres and 8 metres, depending on the type of growth, greatly improving China's optical astronomy's observational potential. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2400"] Image credit- CNN Business[/caption] The telescope is designed to guarantee the generation of top-notch scientific findings, provides the prerequisites for optical observation, and develops priceless expertise that China may use in the future to build larger-caliber ground optical telescopes and launch massive space-splicing telescopes. The splicing mirror technology-based 6-8m all-purpose optical telescope can be constructed over the course of two stages and seven years. In the first phase, which will continue for five years, from 2024 to 2028, a rack and a dome will be built. [caption id="attachment_76907" align="alignright" width="600"] Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) under construction in Pingtang, southwest China's Guizhou province.
STR/AFP via Getty Images[/caption] The main mirror is split in half by 18 smaller mirrors, like the James Webb Space Telescope on Earth. The mirror is approximately 6 metres (5.76*6.24 metres) in length. Its calibre is 5.5 metres. The aperture measures 7.8 metres, and the primary mirror is about 8 metres long. 18 sub-mirrors will be added to the periphery during the second phase, which will take place over the ensuing two years, 2029–2030. The first phase of focal plane instruments consists of imaging cameras and low- and medium-resolution imaging spectrometers, while the second phase will consist of high-resolution spectrometers, polarimeters, and other apparatus. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Image credit- CNN Business[/caption] According to Peking University, the project will probably cost between 500 and 600 million yuan ($71-68 million) overall. EAST would be built on Saishiteng Mountain, close to Lenghu Town, in the Qinghai Province of the Tibetan plateau, at a height of around 13,800 feet (4,200 m). The Lenghu Saishiteng Mountain, at a height of 4,200 metres, has been under close observation by the domestic site selection team for three years. They have gathered information about weather, dust, and atmospheric turbulence, as well as a sizable amount of information on precipitable water vapour, during this time, as well as information on atmospheric seeing, skylight background, the percentage of clear nights that can be observed, and atmospheric seeing. Peking University reports that the typical viewing value at the Saishiteng Mountain Station is 0.75 arcsecond, and the skylight background is darker than 22 magnitudes/square arcsecond on a moonless night.