Credit: TMT International Observatory
The Thirty Meter Telescope is shown oriented straight up to the zenith viewed from behind the telescope tube, the telescope tips away to the back of the image to lower elevations. The segmented primary mirror reflects some of the segment handling system and the four mirror cleaning arms can be seen around the circumference of the primary mirror. The two instrument platforms are seen with the light blue adaptive optics enclosure on the platform on the right of the image. Attached to top of the adaptive optics system is the MODHIS instrument on top, shown in dark blue, the IRIS instrument beneath, seen as gray, and on the side port is a commissioning instrument, also shown as gray. The tertiary mirror in the center of the primary mirror is oriented to send light to the Wide Field Optical Spectrograph, the light gray structure located on the instrument platform on the left side of the image. The foreground structure is part of the mirror segment handling system that transfers segments up and down to the observatory floor and on and off the segment handling system above the primary mirror. Segment exchanges take place with the telescope oriented to the zenith.
