Bigger is definitely better when it comes to astronomical telescopes. A bigger mirror is important for two reasons: it gathers more light which means that fainter objects can be studied in a reasonable amount of time, and it also provides higher angular resolution so that finer details can be studied. There are quite a number of six to ten meter class telescopes in the world today and astronomers now have their collective eyes on even bigger telescopes called ELTs (Extremely Large Telescopes). There are three collaborations in North America and Europe looking to build telescopes from 24 to 42 meters in diameter (about half the size of a football field).
Bigger telescopes are expensive and so are the instruments that go on them to take pictures and analyze the light. These instruments must be bigger to be able to cover the larger high resolution images that are delivered to the telescope focus. A new development is underway at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy in collaboration with Teledyne Scientific and Imaging, LLC that will produce a large detector array for infrared light. At 16 million pixels the new detector will be the largest infrared array ever made and will come at a lower price per pixel. To make cameras that are even bigger, these new detectors will be built so that they can be placed side-by-side to form what is called a mosaic camera. This work is funded by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences through its Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program.
