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toodroot t1_j275ogd wrote

Reply to comment by axialintellectual in China reveals ambitious plans for Asia's largest optical telescope | The new telescope will have an aperture of 19.7 feet (6 meters) by 2024 while its mirror will be expanded to 26.2 feet (8 m) by 2030. by chrisdh79

It can be very good to have multiple instruments that do similar things.

Also, the Chinese astronomers I've worked with are not confused about the scientific value of things. I don't think university or government PR says anything about the views of the scientists working in any organization.

Oh, and the reason I've worked with Chinese astronomers is because they do collaborate with colleagues outside of China.

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axialintellectual t1_j27ysh9 wrote

I know Chinese astronomers work with colleagues outside of China, but I mean specifically when it comes to instruments and telescopes like this. And sure, there are specific use cases where more similar instruments are better - but the pressure on 6m-class telescopes isn't that high. It's also not observing a different part of the sky, so then you're getting into the pure time series coverage thing, which again, nice, but not particularly groundbreaking either, and certainly not deserving of this level of hyperbole.

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GotGRR t1_j29eot3 wrote

Well, the end state is really an 8-meter telescope. So, that's something.

Also, doing the project incrementally sounds like they are trying to build expertise.

Last thought is that Asia has eight hours of night that no one else in the world gets. That doesn't sound like redundancy. That sounds like a wasted opportunity.

Mostly, good on them.

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