(Hexagon Metrology: Cobham, Surrey, U.K.) -- The race is on for who will manufacture 1,000 mirrors for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, with the aid of high-accuracy measurement systems from Hexagon Metrology, has begun work on producing seven of the mirror segments for “the world’s biggest eye on the sky.” The current production is for prototype mirror segments. Once these are approved, Cranfield University, as part of an as yet unnamed U.K. production company, will be able to bid for the manufacturing of more segments.

Built by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) the ground-based E-ELT will be 42 meters in diameter and made up of 1,000 hexagonal mirror segments, each 1.5 meters wide and just 5 centimeters thick. The E-ELT is four to five times larger and will gather 15 times more light than the largest optical telescopes operating today.

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