The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) is a six-meter telescope designed to make high-resolution, microwave-wavelength surveys of the sky in order to study the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB). At an altitude of 5,190 meters (17,030 feet), it’s one of the highest permanent, ground-based telescopes in the world. The ACT is an off-axis Gregorian telescope, with a six meter primary mirror and a two meter secondary mirror. Unlike most telescopes which track the rotating sky during observation, the ACT observes a strip of sky, typically five degrees wide, by scanning back and forth in azimuth at the relatively rapid rate of two degrees per second. An outer ground screen surrounding the telescope minimises contamination from microwave radiation emitted by the ground.
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