History
The history of the Gemini Observatory featured prominently in Giant Telescopes, a 2004 book by science historian W. Patrick McCray . It details the technical and political challenges faced by scientists and engineers working to construct Gemini and other modern observatories.
It is estimated that the two telescopes cost approximately $184 million to construct, and a night on each Gemini telescope is worth about $33,000.
The two 8 meter mirror blanks, each weighing over 24 short tons (22,000 kg), were fabricated from Corning's Ultra Low Expansion glass. Each blank was constructed by the fusing together of and subsequent sagging of a series of smaller hexagonal pieces. This work was performed at Corning's Canton Plant facility located in upstate New York. The blanks were then transported via ship to REOSC, located south of Paris for final grinding and polishing.
One decision made during design to save money was eliminating the 2 Nasmyth platforms. This makes instruments like high resolution spectographs and adaptive optics systems much more difficult to construct, due to the requirement of them being Cassegrain instruments.
Read more about this topic: Gemini Observatory
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