SkyMapper, a new $13 million optical telescope able to survey vast tracts of the night sky, has been launched.
"It has the unique ability to scan a huge piece of the night sky, roughly 25 times larger than the full moon" - Brian Schmidt, of the Australian National University.
Professor Schmidt said ANU's SkyMapper, based at the Siding Spring Observatory in country NSW, would be able to find celestial objects comparable to "needles in a haystack".
Unravelling the mysteries of the skies will be made easier for scientists worldwide by something of a $13 million phoenix. A giant telescope was unveiled yesterday, an improvement on equipment lost to Canberra's bushfires six years ago. The Skymapper is the country's first new optical research telescope in 25 years.
Australia's first new optical telescope in 25 years will soon start its work mapping the southern sky. The Australian National University's SkyMapper telescope is located at the Siding Spring observatory near Coonabarabran in northern New South Wales. Science and Research Minister Kim Carr launched the new telescope in a ceremony held at the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo observatory in Canberra.
It can scan the sky faster and deeper than any other telescope and scientists hope it will reveal new discoveries about the solar system. Australia's newest telescope - SkyMapper - is now online and will spend the next five years conducting the first full digital survey of the southern skies. The $13 million telescope is located at Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran in New South Wales but will be operated by Australian National University (ANU) researchers at Canberra's Mount Stromlo Observatory.
Southern sky to be mapped for first time A project called SkyMapper will survey the southern sky, including the Milky Way's crowded centre, from its perch on Siding Spring Mountain in southeastern Australia. Over five years, astronomers plan to use SkyMapper's 1.35-metre telescope and 268-Megapixel camera to map the sky six times, each time in six different colours. The survey may begin as early as April 2009.