Especially important are the views they provide of the center of the Milky Way and of our interesting neighbors, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. A large telescope at an optimal site can detect light that has been traveling toward us for a large fraction of the age of the universe, estimated at between 10 and 20 billion years. Scientists will have twice as much observing time. The astronomers also will be able to operate the two telescopes as one, with the light from each directed toward a common point where the light is then combined using highly sophisticated techniques. In this way, a view of a celestial object can be obtained with a resolution more than tenfold higher than would be possible with either telescope alone.
Components come from many different sources during the long process of building a telescope.
For instance, more than 240 tons of steel were shipped from Spain to Chile in 1995 for the enclosure, the auxiliary, and the control buildings. A California engineering company built the mount and mirror cell and will ship them to Chile later this year. The primary mirror was cast and ground at the University of Arizona's Mirror Laboratory and awaits polishing. The first telescope is expected to be operational by mid-1999. The Magellan Project, as the twin-telescope undertaking is called, involves a consortium led by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1902 and devoted to scientific discovery.