China builds Asia's largest astronomical observatory

The astronomical observatory project under construction, believed to be the largest in both China and Asia, represents the country's ambitions for space exploration.

The work is located on Mount Saishiteng in Lenghu town, in the autonomous region of the Mongol ethnic group and the Tibetan Haixi ethnic group of Qinghai province. The scientists chose this location because of the altitude of about 4,200 meters above sea level and the often clear night sky with low light pollution. Saishiteng is considered one of the most ideal astronomical observation sites in the world.

"Through three years of continuous data collection, we discovered that the average visible value here is 0.75 arcseconds , " said lead researcher Deng Licai from the National Astronomical Observatory (NAOC). affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Being a very steep mountain with barren soil, Saishiteng posed great challenges for construction. Just to pick a spot and find the way up, scientists had to climb the mountain for three to four hours at a time.

In the early stages of construction, everything had to be transported to the top by helicopter, with 80 trips a day, weather permitting.

Engineers have now completed the installation of the Lenghu astronomical observatory's two initial monitoring towers - one for studying the Sun and the other for studying the stars at night. Every day, data is automatically sent to the NAOC.

According to the plan, more than 30 telescopes will be installed on Mount Saishiteng, including the Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) . This 2.5 m diameter instrument, with its advanced main focus optical design, high resolution and wide field of view, will enable scanning of the entire Northern hemisphere in just three nights.

In addition, a planetary atmospheric spectroscopic telescope 0.8 m in diameter is also being installed by the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (IGG) of CAS. It will do the coordination work for deep space exploration missions, including observations of Mars, Jupiter, comets in the solar system and small objects, providing independent observation data as well as finding Search and identify extrasolar planets.

In order to preserve the dark sky for space observation purposes, the Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Region governments have re-established street lights to reduce light pollution, and issued regulations to protect the clear atmosphere in the area.

Lenghu Astronomical Observatory Project. (Video: CCTV+).