The ESO Open House Day 2011 was held on 15 October at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Headquarters. The visitors were allowed to take part in a wide range activities including construction of a full-size mock-up of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) mirror, the largest telescope mirror in the world.
This full-size replica of the mirror was built by participants at ESO’s Open House Day 2011 in Garching bei München. The full-size mock-up was made of 798 cardboard hexagons, each around 1.4 metres across, and it measured 39.3 metres across, occupying an area of nearly 1000 square metres. The E-ELT will be the largest optical/infrared telescope in the world. Credit: ESO
The Open House Day had around 3100 visitors. An outline of the mirror was made on the ground next to the ESO Headquarters and participants placed cardboard hexagons measuring 1.4 m to form the large mirror. The full-size mock-up took up 798 hexagons and measured 39.3 m across, while occupying an area of around 1000 sq m.
The event included exhibitions on ESO's observatories - the E-ELT, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and the Very Large Telescope. Visitors were allowed to experience controlling of a real segment of E-ELT’s main mirror. They also maneuvered a giant transporter, virtually, for the ALMA antennas. The program also included a virtual tour of the E-ELT. E-ELT’s prototype components were also exhibited at the event.
The visitors chatted live over video links with ESO astronomers at the Paranal Observatory. They also viewed the Sun through telescopes having appropriate filters. The visitors travelled in a Skyskan planetarium and the Stellarium programme. They also wrote postcards to their friends from the Universe’s edge, which will be sent by ESO.