Telescope first: Magellan Adaptive Optics Eyepiece Observing
1 minute
This has never been done before on any large telescope on the planet.
Two nights ago, for the first time in history, astronomers from University of Arizona and Carnegie's Yuri Beletsky at Las Campanas Observatory used the Clay Magellan telescope together with Magellan Adaptive Optics (MagAO) to look at the sky through an eyepiece at the full diffraction limit of a 6.5-m mirror. This has never been done before on any large telescope on the planet. Together, they managed to see a fully corrected image of Alpha Centauri. Beletsky also documented the moment with his camera. More
Caption: Arizona's Laird Close looking through the eyepiece, courtesy of Yuri Beletsky.