A while ago I got into a
discussion about the longest telephoto lenses ever made, by Leica but also in
general. Most Leica enthusiast are aware
of the awesome 800mm f/6.3 TelyR, the longest lens after the 560mm f/6.8
Telyt-R. But not many are aware that
Leica made a lens twice as long, a 1600mm f/5.6 Apo-Telyt-R. It was delivered in 2006 on special order to
a rich photography aficionado, Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani of Qatar, at a
price of 16 million Hong Kong Dollars - the equivalent of 2,064,500 US dollars.
The lens is the only one ever sold, but a another one was on display at the
Leica factory showroom in Solms, Germany, before they moved to Leitz Platz II in Wetzlar.
Leica 560mm f/6.8 Telyt-R
on Leica M5, Visoflex 3, Bellows2
Leica 800mm f/6.3
Apo-Telyt-S
Leica 1600mm f/5.6
Apo-Telyt-R
Unfortunately, little is
known about the technical specifications of the lens. It has a bayonet mount
for Leica's R-series cameras, is approximately 1.2m long (1.55m with lens hood
attached), has a maximum lens barrel diameter of about 42cm, and weighs no less
than 60kg. With a focal length of
1600mm, it covers a diagonal angle of view of merely 1.5 degrees. The lens
should be compatible with Leica's 1.4x and 2x APO-teleconverters, increasing
the focal length to 1:8/2240mm and 1:11/3200mm respectively. With the Leica R adapter, it could also be
used on the current, digital Leica M models as well as the Leica T and the
Leica SL.
Leica M8 camera sitting
inside the lens hood
Getting sharp images from
such a behemoth of a lens is a major challenge and requires a very solid
tripod. The Danish Leica expert Thorsten Overgaard reported that Sheikh
Al-Thani commissioned a specially-equipped Mercedes four wheel drive to carry
his expensive lens and move it around.
But this is very little
compared to the truly longest and most powerful lenses ever made. Actually, the word lens is somewhat
misleading because I am talking about astronomical telescopes. People have argued that a telescope is not
really a lens, yet I argue it is.
Astronomical telescopes routinely are used to take photographs. That, in principle, makes them lenses just
like any other telephoto; they are just a lot longer and faster.
One of the main aspects of
an astronomical telescope is its light gathering power, or speed as we refer to
it in photography. In this regard I have
come up with some rather astonishing numbers.
Currently, the largest
telescope in operation is the Gran Telescopio Canarias. Its main mirror has a diameter of 10.4 meter
(34.12 foot). The actual focal length is
16.5 meter which corresponds to a 16,500mm f/1.6 lens. Similar in size are the Keck 1 and Keck 2
telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. They
have a diameter of the main mirror of 10 meter (32.8 foot). Their focal length is 17.5 meter, making them
17,500mm f/1.75 lenses.
Gran Telescopio
Keck 1 and 2
The segmented mirror of
Keck 2
The Large Binocular
Telescope at the Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona consists of
two parallel telescopes which can be combined for simultaneous viewing. It has currently the largest light gathering
power of any earthbound telescope with a focal length of 9.6 meter, making it a
9,600mm f/1.14 lens.
Large Binocular Telescope
By these figures we can
definitely see that there is a correlation between focal length and actual
speed. This becomes especially obvious
when considering the BTA-6 telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory
in Karachai–Cherkessia, Russia. It has a
mirror with a diameter of 6 meter (19.69 foot).
Apparently it has the longest focal length of any telescope currently in
use with 26 meter (85.3 foot), effectively making it a 26,000mm f/4 lens.
BTA-6
The large structure to the
right is a special crane used to service the installation
The 6 meter, solid mirror
of BTA-6
In fall of 2012
construction of the largest telescope in the world began after gaining the
final approval by the governing council of the European Southern Observatory
(ESO) earlier that year.
The E-ELT will be a
129-foot (39-meter) segmented-mirror telescope sited atop a mountain called
Cerro Armazones in northern Chile, close to ESO’s Paranal Observatory. It will
be many times more sensitive than any other instrument of its kind, researchers
said.
An artist's rendering of the
E-ELT.
Please note the size of
the car and the person at the lower left for scale
The huge telescope will
collect at least 12 times more light than today's largest optical telescopes,
allowing astronomers to probe a variety of high-priority cosmic questions.
Scientists will use it to help search for habitable alien planets, for example,
and to study the nature and distribution of dark matter and dark energy, the
mysterious stuff thought to make up most of our universe but which astronomers
have yet to detect directly.
"The telescope is set
to revolutionize optical and infrared astronomy," said Isobel Hook of the
University of Oxford, the United Kingdom's E-ELT project scientist, in a
statement. "Its unique combination of sharp imaging and huge light
collecting area will allow us to observe some of the most exciting phenomena in
the universe in much better detail."
Building the E-ELT is
expected to cost 1.1 billion euros, or roughly $1.2 billion at current
exchange rates. ESO officials estimate the telescope becoming operational in
early 2020.
No data regarding the
actual speed of the telescope has been published so far. We do know that the telescope's main mirror
has a diameter of 39 meters. With a focal length of 39 meters, that would yield
a maximum aperture of f/1. Looking at some of the other large telescopes
throughout the world, they all seem to have a focal length under 20 meters.
Taking a 20 meter focal length would yield a maximum aperture of f/0.5.
Consideration that this telescope is designed to gather at least 12 times more
light than the largest optical telescopes currently in operation, this could
translate to a potential aperture of f/0.3.
With other words, this telescope will be amazingly fast, especially if
one considers that the fastest production lens for photography is the 50mm
f/0.95 Leica Noctilux.
Very impressive
instruments indeed. But for the time
being I will stay with my 400 and 800mm lenses. They are a lot more portable, although also a
lot slower.
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It's perhaps the first time I read about the telescope's aperture.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, thanks!
Guess size does matter!!
ReplyDeleteWow! Over 2M for a lens, and a special car. I'd love to see some photos.
ReplyDelete