A billion-dollar telescope in Lego
Fancy building your own Lego super-telescope?
The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), one of three giant telescopes around the world that are scheduled for completion after 2020, has been built… in Lego. It was designed and built by Dutch astronomer Frans Snik, who spent several months of his free time constructing the 1:150 scale model from 5,274 individual Lego parts. He also put together a guide that Lego enthusiasts can use to build their own E-ELT. The bricks cost a total of around £470 ($760), which is a million times less than the estimated cost of the real E-ELT.