Getting to Know the Subaru Telescope

    First known as Japan National Large Telescope, "JNLT", the name Subaru was chosen out of 3500 other names. Subaru means a Japanese name of Pleiades. Subaru was constructed by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan or more commonly known as NAOJ. Subaru's  first light was in 1998. The primary mirror is 8.3 meters in diameter and is made from ultra-low thermal expansion glass. This happens to be the largest single piece mirror in the world.It is a reflecting telescope.