Telescope technology continues to advance in all fields of astronomy. Several new optical telescopes designed for interferometry are being built. Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) began construction of five 3-ft (1-m) telescopes at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California in 1995. The United States, Great Britain, Canada, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil have joined forces to build two 26-ft (8-m) telescopes in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, and Cerro Pachon, Chile in 1996. This project, called Gemini, is scheduled for completion between 1998 and 2000.
A team of scientists from the University of Arizona, Ohio State University, and German and Italian astronomical research institutions cast the largest single-piece mirror ever in 1997 for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The LBT will be installed at the Mount Graham Observatory in Arizona. It will have two 27.6-ft (8.4-m) mirrors, which will provide an image comparable to that of a single 75-ft (23-m) telescope when construction is complete in 2001.
The launch of Japan's Space Observatory Program satellite in 1997 enhanced the radio astronomy program called the Very Long Baseline Interferometer (VLBI), creating a radio telescope larger than the earth. The satellite and about 40 earth-based radio telescopes combine signals to produce radio images about three times clearer than was previously possible.