10-06-2018, 07:47 PM
Dan - thanks for that. The whole point of the VLBA is to simulate a telescope that has the diameter of the earth and one of their telescopes is on Mauna Kea, although well below the summit. It's easier to do this with radio telescopes as the wavelength of radio waves is so large so as long as you have precise time measurements you can just send all the data to one site and it will use the concept of interferometry to produce an image in unprecedented detail. Unfortunately, it's much harder to do this at optical or infrared wavelengths although the two Kecks on MK have managed to successfully produce optical interferometry results.
Unfortunately, I believe they have given up on that project for the time being as it's just so hard to do. Even tiny changes in temperature affect the results to the point that trying to correct for them is too expensive.
Unfortunately, I believe they have given up on that project for the time being as it's just so hard to do. Even tiny changes in temperature affect the results to the point that trying to correct for them is too expensive.