The telescopes are in the two shed-like white buildings (one in the foreground, the other in shadows in the background).
The collected light is bounced through the white pipes into the large building in the middle, where it is combined and interference fringes are collected. (It has to be combined optically to preserve phase.)
To work, the distances between the two collectors must be maintained very precisely. Besides the obvious optical issues, the technical challenge becomes to measure the separation of the collectors very precisely ("metrology").
http://pti.jpl.nasa.gov/
The telescopes are in the two shed-like white buildings (one in the foreground, the other in shadows in the background).
The collected light is bounced through the white pipes into the large building in the middle, where it is combined and interference fringes are collected. (It has to be combined optically to preserve phase.)
To work, the distances between the two collectors must be maintained very precisely. Besides the obvious optical issues, the technical challenge becomes to measure the separation of the collectors very precisely ("metrology").
For more:
http://olbin.jpl.nasa.gov/