The Role of Small Telescopes in the Upcoming Era of the Giant Magellan Telescope and Other Extremely Large Telescopes (Abstract)

Volume 45 number 1 (2017)

Charles Alcock

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS-45, Cambridge, MA 02138; calcock@cfa.harvard.edu

Abstract

(Abstract only) The Giant Magellan Telescope will be a 25-meter telescope located close to the twin Magellan Telescopes at the Las Campanas Observatory. I describe this telescope and some of the science goals we have developed, and also discuss the evolving balance between astronomy conducted with telescopes of a range of sizes, from 10 cm to 25 meters.