* Astronomy

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RE: South Pole Telescope

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Title: Optical followup of galaxy clusters detected by the South Pole Telescope
Authors: S. Desai, R. Armstrong, M.L.N. Ashby, B. Bayliss, G. Bazin, B. Benson, E. Bertin, L. Bleem, M. Brodwin, A. Clochiatti, R. Foley, M. Gladders, A.H. Gonzalez, F.W. High, J. Liu, J. Mohr, A. Rest, J. Ruel, A. Saro, J. Song, B. Stalder, A. Stanford, C. Stubbs, A. Zenteno

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a 10 meter telescope operating at mm wavelengths. It has recently completed a three-band survey covering 2500 sq. degrees. One of the survey's main goals is to detect galaxy clusters using Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect and use these clusters for a variety of cosmological and astrophysical studies such as the dark energy equation of state, the primordial non-gaussianity and the evolution of galaxy populations. Since 2005, we have been engaged in a comprehensive optical and near-infrared followup program (at wavelengths between 0.4 and 5 {\mu}m) to image high-significance SPT clusters, to measure their photometric redshifts, and to estimate the contamination rate of the candidate lists. These clusters are then used for various cosmological and astrophysical studies.

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Title: The First Public Release of South Pole Telescope Data: Maps of a 95-square-degree Field from 2008 Observations
Authors: K. K. Schaffer, T. M. Crawford, K. A. Aird, B. A. Benson, L. E. Bleem, J. E. Carlstrom, C. L. Chang, H. M. Cho, A. T. Crites, T. de Haan, M. A. Dobbs, E. M. George, N. W. Halverson, G. P. Holder, W. L. Holzapfel, S. Hoover, J. D. Hrubes, M. Joy, R. Keisler, L. Knox, A. T. Lee, E. M. Leitch, M. Lueker, D. Luong-Van, J. J. McMahon, J. Mehl, S. S. Meyer, J. J. Mohr, T. E. Montroy, S. Padin, T. Plagge, C. Pryke, C. L. Reichardt, J. E. Ruhl, E. Shirokoff, H. G. Spieler, B. Stalder, Z. Staniszewski, A. A. Stark, K. Story, K. Vanderlinde, J. D. Vieira, R. Williamson

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) has nearly completed a 2500-square-degree survey of the southern sky in three frequency bands. Here we present the first public release of SPT maps and associated data products. We present arcminute-resolution maps at 150 GHz and 220 GHz of an approximately 95-square-degree field centred at R.A. 82.7 degrees, decl. -55 degrees. The field was observed to a depth of approximately 17 micro-K arcmin at 150 GHz and 41 micro-K arcmin at 220 GHz during the 2008 austral winter season. Two variations on map filtering and map projection are presented, one tailored for producing catalogues of galaxy clusters detected through their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect signature and one tailored for producing catalogues of emissive sources. We describe the data processing pipeline, and we present instrument response functions, filter transfer functions, and map noise properties. All data products described in this paper are available for download at this http URL and from the NASA Legacy Archive for Microwave Background Data Analysis server. This is the first step in the eventual release of data from the full 2500-square-degree SPT survey.

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Title: The 10 Meter South Pole Telescope
Authors: J. E. Carlstrom, P. A. R. Ade, K. A. Aird, B. A. Benson, L. E. Bleem, S. Busetti, C. L. Chang, E. Chauvin, H.-M. Cho, T. M. Crawford, A. T. Crites, M. A. Dobbs, N. W. Halverson, S. Heimsath, W. L. Holzapfel, J. D. Hrubes, M. Joy, R. Keisler, T. M. Lanting, A. T. Lee, E. M. Leitch, J. Leong, W. Lu, M. Lueker, D. Luong-Van, J. J. McMahon, J. Mehl, S. S. Meyer, J. J. Mohr, T. E. Montroy, S. Padin, T. Plagge, C. Pryke, J. E. Ruhl, K. K. Schaffer, D. Schwan, E. Shirokoff, H. G. Spieler, Z. Staniszewski, A. A. Stark, C. Tucker, K. Vanderlinde, J. D. Vieira, R. Williamson
(Version v2)

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a 10 m diameter, wide-field, offset Gregorian telescope with a 966-pixel, multi-colour, millimetre-wave, bolometer camera. It is located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station in Antarctica. The design of the SPT emphasizes careful control of spillover and scattering, to minimise noise and false signals due to ground pickup. The key initial project is a large-area survey at wavelengths of 3, 2 and 1.3 mm, to detect clusters of galaxies via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect and to measure the small-scale angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The data will be used to characterise the primordial matter power spectrum and to place constraints on the equation of state of dark energy. A second-generation camera will measure the polarization of the CMB, potentially leading to constraints on the neutrino mass and the energy scale of inflation.

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The moon illuminates the 10-meter South Pole Telescope.

Winter and summer are the only two seasons, but they could easily be called night and day. Sunrise and sunset aren't daily occurrences there; instead they're annual events, in September and March, respectively.
Keith Vanderlinde was part of the 60-person crew that spent the winter of 2008 at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, a U.S. research facility.
The station is physically cut off from the rest of the world from mid-February to late-October because it's too cold for airplane travel.
But it wasn't too cold to stop Vanderlinde from venturing outdoors on a daily basis.
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Title: The 10 Metre South Pole Telescope
Authors: J. E. Carlstrom, P. A. R. Ade, K. A. Aird, B. A. Benson, L. E. Bleem, S. Busetti, C. L. Chang, E. Chauvin, H.-M. Cho, T. M. Crawford, A. T. Crites, M. A. Dobbs, N. W. Halverson, S. Heimsath, W. L. Holzapfel, J. D. Hrubes, M. Joy, R. Keisler, T. M. Lanting, A. T. Lee, E. M. Leitch, J. Leong, W. Lu, M. Lueker, J. J. McMahon, J. Mehl, S. S. Meyer, J. J. Mohr, T. E. Montroy, S. Padin, T. Plagge, C. Pryke, J. E. Ruhl, K. K. Schaffer, D. Schwan, E. Shirokoff, H. G. Spieler, Z. Staniszewski, A. A. Stark, K. Vanderlinde J. D. Vieira

The South Pole Telescope (SPT) is a 10 m diameter, wide-field, offset Gregorian telescope with a 966-pixel, multi-colour, millimetre-wave, bolometer camera. It is located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station in Antarctica. The design of the SPT emphasises careful control of spillover and scattering, to minimise noise and false signals due to ground pickup. The key initial project is a large-area survey at wavelengths of 3, 2 and 1.3 mm, to detect clusters of galaxies via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) effect and to measure the high-l angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The data will be used to characterise the primordial matter power spectrum and to place constraints on the equation of state of dark energy.

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Astronomers will put their theory of the origin and inflation of the universe to a stringent test by observing the cosmic background of the Big Bang in the extreme cold of Antarctica.
An international team are planning to use the 10-metre South Pole Telescope at the U.S. National Science Foundation's research station in the continent's central polar region. They will use it to look for gravity waves; stirrings in the fabric of space-time first predicted by Einstein.

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AMUNDSEN-SCOTT STATION, Antarctica - Anywhere on Earth this would be a big telescope, as high as a seven-story building, with a main mirror measuring 32 1/2 feet across. But here at the South Pole, it seems especially large, looming over a barren plain of ice that gets colder than anywhere else on the planet. Scientists built the instrument at the end of the world so they can search for clues that might identify the most powerful, plentiful but elusive substance in the universe -- dark energy.

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