LOOKING UP

OWL Astronomy's next big thing

The OWL (Overwhelmingly Large Telescope) is an awesome project which requires international effort to make it happen. If constructed, this huge telescope - with a main mirror more than 100 metres across - would have a predicted resolution 40 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope and a sensitivity several thousand times greater.
It would be sited – probably in Chile - at an altitude of 5000 metres and would be operated almost as a space observatory, with a base camp for the human operators nearby at a lower height of no more than 3000 metres.