A realistic simulation of TMT's secondary mirror. Note the thin spiders supporting the secondary. Such thin spiders are important for removing petal modes that adversely affect image quality and ensuring more of the mirror gathers light from the distant objects we're studying.
The Thirty Meter Telescope is shown at a very low elevation angle. The segmented primary mirror reflects the convex secondary mirror. The tertiary mirror in the center of the primary mirror is oriented to send light to the Wide Field Optical Spectrograph, the gray structure located on the right side of the image. The left and right instrument platforms are seen and the dark blue adaptive optics enclosure is seen on the upper left on the instrument support structure.
The Thirty Meter Telescope is shown at a very low elevation angle. The segmented primary mirror reflects the convex secondary mirror. The tertiary mirror in the center of the primary mirror is oriented to send light to the Wide Field Optical Spectrograph, the gray structure located on the right side of the image. The left and right instrument platforms are seen and the dark blue adaptive optics enclosure is seen on the upper left on the instrument support structure.
An artist concept of TMT at night, with the laser guide star system illuminated.
