Extremely Large Telescope Working Group

ELT/GMT Information Meeting, 18 May 2006

• Terms of Reference: The Extremely Large Telescope Working Group (ELTWG) was set up in 2003 by the National Committee for Astronomy of the Australian Academy of Sciences with these terms of reference:
  • Explore opportunities for Australian participation in projects to build an extremely large optical/infrared ground-based telescope (an ELT);
  • Develop the scientific and technical case for an ELT;
  • Liaise with the astronomical community to provide information about ELT projects and receive feedback on community responses;
  • Explore and develop the funding opportunities and industry partnerships for an ELT.

• Membership:
  • Matthew Colless, AAO (Chair)
  • Sam Barden, AAO
  • Warrick Couch, UNSW
  • Brad Gibson, Swinburne
  • Charles Jenkins, ANU
  • Jon Lawrence, UNSW
  • Peter McGregor, ANU
  • Penny Sackett, ANU
  • John Storey, UNSW
  • Chris Tinney, AAO

• ELT Roadmap: Version 17 Sep 2004 (PDF, 5.6Mb)
  Note - the ELT Roadmap is a 'living document' that is evolving in tandem with the new Decadal Plan for Australian Astronomy that will be completed in Sep 2005.

• Activities:
  • National Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes, 21/5/2003
  • Submission to National Research Infrastructure Taskforce, 29/8/2003

• Information: Background on ELT projects can be found here. Links to ELT projects on the WWW include:
  • TMT: Thirty Metre Telescope
  • CELT: California Extremely Large Telescope
  • GSMT: Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope
  • OWL: Overwhelmingly Large Telescope
  • GMT: Giant Magellan Telescope
  • VLOT: Very Large Optical Telescope
  • LAT: Large Atacama Telescope
  • EURO50: European 50-metre Telescope
  • JELT: Japanese ELT Project

Working group private pages are here.