The Subaru Telescope
Last week, Japan's new
Subaru Telescope
made its first observations of the sky.
The gray building housing Subaru is visible just left of the white
Keck domes near the photo's center.
Subaru is the latest in the
class of optical telescopes
using a mirror with a diameter greater than 8 meters.
Subaru's 8.3-meter primary is the
largest single-piece optical telescope mirror yet made,
and is so thin that its precise shape can be monitored and adjusted.
Subaru will be owned and operated by
Japan
but located at the top of
Hawaii's
Mauna Kea,
a dormant volcano famous for housing several of the
world's
leading telescopes.