30 August 2008

Powerful telescope to 'open new window in universe'

30 August 2008 | By rosebud

The ABC reports that scientists at Canberra’s Mount Stromlo Observatory will control and process data from a new type of astronomical telescope known as Skymapper.

Any Canberra scientist Riotacters out there who would like to comment more?

Join the conversation

All Comments

All Comments
Website Comments
Facebook Comments

LatestOldest

The cat did it10:29 pm 30 Aug 08

i suspect they mean ‘powerful’ in a mapping sense, perhaps in terms of amounts of data captured, not in terms of optical resolution. The design is optimised for fast, accurate and comprehensive survey work, with a lot of attention being paid to thermal stability (cooling, equipment chillers etc)

shauno4:20 pm 30 Aug 08

Cant quiet work out why its suppose to be 40 times more powerful then anything in the world when its only got a 1.3m mirror. Does the 40 times relate to the amount of data it can capture as opposed to the deep field resolution of the 10m Keck and 8m Chili telescopes?

Spectra2:14 pm 30 Aug 08

The telescope itself is located at Siding Springs Observatory. Plenty of information for those interested is located on the official site.