Russian ELT projects and prospects

Abstract

The project of the Russian 6m BTA telescope reconstruction was cancelled in 2004 because of financial problems. In the beginning, it was planned to replace the existing 42 ton parabolic main mirror by a new one of 8m diameter using the Zerodur blank provided by the Germain company Schott.

Russia still possesses a high potential in the development of large-scale optics and mechanics. A new 25m telescope with the segmented mirror was the subject of wide speculations. Strange as it may seem, the country with the world largest territory has no good site for a large astronomical observatory. Any project of the national observatory is therefore faced with the necessity of looking for a foreign partner. We are also studying the possibility of joining one of the large international projects, including the ESO projects OWL, ALMA and others. At the same time, work on a few Russian space astronomical missions is going on well.