constellation of Fornax (the Chemical Furnace). The wide field allows many galaxies to be captured in a single image including the striking barred-spiral NGC 1365 and the big elliptical galaxy NGC 1399. The image was constructed from images taken through Z, J and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum and has captured many of the cluster members in a single image. At the lower-right is the elegant barred-spiral galaxy NGC 1365 and to the left the big elliptical NGC 1399, surrounded by a swarm of faint globular clusters. The image is about 1 degree by 1.5 degrees in extent and the total exposure time was 25 minutes. Technical details Telescope Design The objective to repeatedly image large areas of sky at seeing-limited resolution led to a unique optical design. The primary mirror is a concave hyperboloid with 4.1 m diameter and about f/1 focal ratio. The mirror has a meniscus shape of 17 cm thickness with a central 1.2 m hole to accommodate the camera at the Cassegrain focus. It was cast from Zerodur by Schott in Germany and subsequently polished and figured by LZOS, Moscow. It is the largest mirror of this shape and of such short focal ratio; polishing it took 2 years, which was longer than anticipated. The mirror is supported by a number of actuators (81 on the back and 24 around the edge), which allow its shape to be controlled by computers. The secondary mirror is a convex hyperboloid of 1.24 m diameter. The combination of the two hyperbolic mirrors makes this a quasi-Ritchey-Chrétien design. The combined focal ratio is about f/3, but the image quality of the two mirrors alone would be poor. The secondary mirror is mounted on a hexapod support so that its position, tip, and tilt are also computer-controlled. The infrared camera was built by a consortium composed of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, and Durham University, and is the world's largest at almost three tonnes. Telescope and camera form a single optical design, as the three field correction lenses in the camera are essential for the projection of a focussed image of the sky on the detectors. For an infrared camera, it is also vital to block heat radiation from the telescope and dome. This is accomplished by a sequence of cooled baffles in front of the field corrector lenses. Also, the secondary