European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), the largest optical-infrared telescope ever to be built, is on its way to becoming a reality with the council of the European Southern Observatory (ESO)'s approval for initial work to be done on the project.

While full funding for the €1.1 billion project has not yet been secured, the initial approval allows work to begin on building roads to the telescope site at Cerro Armazones in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and on development of the instrument's adaptive optics, according to a report by Daniel Clery of Science Insider.

The ESO schedule will see the start of the construction in 2012 and observations start in 2022. The E-ELT will have a main mirror 39.2 meters across, dwarfing the 11.9-meter effective size of today's largest telescope, the Large Binocular Telescope.

"The E-ELT is starting to become reality," ESO Director General Tim de Zeeuw said in a statement. "However, with a project of this size it is expected that approval of the extra expenditure will take time. Council at the same time recognizes that preparatory work must start now in order for the project to be ready for a full start of construction in 2012."

In addition to initial funding, Chile has already donated the necessary land at Armazones, while some states, such as the United Kingdom, are pitching in for instruments.
ESO member states' annual contributions together with contributions from new member Brazil are expected to raise two-thirds of the funds needed to complete the E-ELT. For the remaining one-third, ESO is asking members to increase their contributions by 2%, Clery's report said.

According to the Science Insider, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Finland have already agreed to contribute more funds, but other members asked for more time. ESO expects full approval of the project by mid-2012.

Two rival telescope efforts in the United States, the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Thirty Meter Telescope, are also in the process of securing funding from the cash-strapped National Science Foundation.