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primary mirror

British  

noun

  1. the mirror that collects and focuses the incoming light in a reflecting telescope

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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By combining the four VLT 8.2-metre telescopes at ESO's Paranal Observatory, they can resolve details as if astronomers would employ a telescope with a primary mirror of 200 metres in diameter.

From Science Daily Jan. 8, 2024

Combined with the telescope's 6.5m-wide primary mirror and associated optics it takes astonishing pictures.

From BBC Aug. 31, 2023

Gold-plated and about as wide as a full-grown African elephant, the telescope’s infrared-tuned primary mirror allows it to probe the atmospheres of exoplanets to a degree never before possible.

From Scientific American Jan. 23, 2023

With a primary mirror 21 feet wide, the Webb is seven times as powerful as its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.

From New York Times Dec. 27, 2022

Telescopes are also limited by diffraction, because of the finite diameter D of their primary mirror.

From Textbooks Aug. 12, 2015

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