Explanation:
With moonlight on the horizon, a starry sky
and the northern Milky Way
provide the background for
this
dramatic view of the
World at Night.
The imposing structure in the foreground houses the
Large Binocular Telescope
(LBT), on Mount Graham, Arizona.
Inside,
the two 8.4 meter diameter mirrors of the LBT really are
side-by-side on a common mount, an
arrangement
mimicking the design of more modest optical equipment usually
carried around the neck.
While not exactly portable,
the benefits of the large scale binocular configuration adopted
include an increase in sensitivity over a single mirror telescope
and high resolution imaging for faint objects over a relatively
wide field of view.
An international collaboration operates the
LBT Observatory.
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