COAST fact-file:

1

• COAST fact-file
• First light 1992
• Wavelength (frequency) 800 nm and 1300 nm (3.7
  x 1014 Hz and 2.3 x 1014 Hz)
• Baseline 2.5 m 67 m
• Made up of 5 x 40 cm diameter, reflecting
  telescopes, each housed in white structures shown
  in the photograph
• Laboratory where signals are combined is covered
  by 300 tonnes of soil to keep temperature
  constant
• 850,000 in 1991 (1.1 million today)

The COAST
Science
Background Information
The Cambridge Optical Aperture Synthesis
Telescope (COAST) was constructed between 1988
and 1991. It uses the same techniques as radio
interferometers, at much shorter optical
wavelengths, to synthesise a giant telescope.
An image of the binary star Capella made with
COAST.
50 milli-arcseconds