* Astronomy

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Catalina Sky Survey

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All Catalina Real-time Transient Survey Optical Transients (CSS data)

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Catalina Observatories Open Day

Saturday, May 22, 2010, Noon - 6 p.m.
The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory invites you to celebrate 50 years of science in the Catalina Mountains.

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Catalina Sky Survey Spawns Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey

The Catalina Sky Survey detects potentially hazardous asteroids and comets. Now a spin-off survey is finding a windfall of "optical transients" in the same data.

Astronomers have been mining a mother lode of astronomical data from The University of Arizonas Catalina Sky Survey and finding more "optical transients" than they can characterize during the past 17 months.
They have found more than 700 unique optical transients, or objects that change brightness on time scales of minutes to years.
Theyve also found 177 supernovae. Thats more than dedicated supernova surveys have turned up during that time.

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The University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey, known as CSS, has discovered about 70 percent of all near Earth objects (NEOs) found in past three years. Under the direction of Stephen M. Larson of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, CSS tallied 565 NEO discoveries in 2008, which broke its record-setting number of 460 NEO discoveries in 2007

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Undergraduate astronomy students at the University of Arizona will soon have the opportunity to hone their research techniques and maybe even save the world as the Catalina Sky Survey expands its search for asteroids that could wipe out our civilization.
With new technology and continued NASA funding announced this week, the Catalina Sky Survey should cement its position as king of the hill among asteroid watchers.
Operating three telescopes - two in the Catalina Mountains and a third that scans the southern skies from Australia - the Sky Survey can lay claim to spotting 70 percent of the near-Earth objects observed in the past three years.

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The University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey has been awarded a $3.16 million NASA grant to continue its search for near-Earth objects, or NEOs, through 2012.
Under the direction of Stephen M. Larson of the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, the survey, known as CSS, has discovered about 70 percent of all NEOs found in the past three years.
CSS tallied 565 NEO discoveries in 2008, which broke its record-setting number of 460 NEO discoveries in 2007.
Thanks to an additional $250,000 NASA grant, which was matched by private donations, the survey is now positioning itself to become even more productive.
CSS is about to open a new high-speed communications link and begin operating another telescope, a 1-meter, or 40-inch, telescope that is being refurbished with a new mirror and new software. It will be housed in a new 22-foot dome that was constructed next to the UA's 1.5 meter, or 60-inch, Mount Lemmon telescope north of Tucson.
The refurbished, automated telescope " represents a huge increase in potential survey productivity," said CSS co-investigator Ed Beshore, who is principal investigator on the $3.16 million NASA grant.
The telescope, which will be operational this summer, will be used to quickly follow up NEO discoveries, increasing the team's surveying time on other telescopes by 20 to 25 percent.

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