International context

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The goal is to build a diluted telescope of 100-200 meters of aperture in a very good site. The constraints for a Carlina's site are the same as for any modern telescope: it should be located relatively high-up in the mountains (dry air for IR observations), in a good weather area (weak cloud cover) and with a favorable atmospheric turbulence (seeing< 1'', slow turbulence), etc. But, the selection relies mainly on topographic considerations: typically, a valley oriented in the East-West direction is required, with a nearly hemi-cylindrical shape at the bottom. Nevertheless, the cost of such a project will reach more than 10 millions of euros. A new observatory has to be built ! In europe, It is very difficult at this time to find such a budget. Moreover, more study are required to test the stability of cables on a large distance (1-2 km between two montains), or the stability of supports that will carry at 10-20 m height the primary mirrors.... For these reasons, we have proposed to built a scientific demonstrator of 30-40 m of aperture, at Calern Observatory (France, near Nice). This project could be build in about 5 years. It is a good compromise between price, science goals, and technical issues. Here is a first study for this project:

Click on the image to Download the PDF with more explanations on the project