Astronomers will have access to a digital chart of the entire southern night sky following today’s launch of the $13 million Australian National University (ANU) SkyMapper Telescope.
SkyMapper is a state-of-the-art, fully-automated survey telescope at the ANU’s Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran in New South Wales. The telescope is operated remotely via a 700-kilometre, optical -fibre link from Mount Stromlo in the ACT.
Taking full advantage of the new technology, the telescope was jointly launched by the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Senator Kim Carr at the Stromlo facility and the NSW Governor Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, video-linked in from Coonabarabran.
“The SkyMapper is a new generation surveying telescope, able to scan the night sky more quickly and deeply than ever before. It will provide a map of the southern sky allowing astronomers to study everything from nearby objects like asteroids to the most distant quasars," Senator Carr said.
“SkyMapper will complete the five-year Southern Sky Survey, a detailed map of the position, brightness and variability of over one billion astronomical objects south of the celestial equator. Information garnered from this revolutionary scanning of the night sky, about 400 Terabytes (or 100,000 DVDs worth) of data, will be shared globally among astronomers via the Internet.
“This survey was started in 2003 but cut short after just 18 days when the Great Melbourne Telescope was destroyed in the Canberra bushfires.”
Senator Carr congratulated the ANU’s industry partner in the SkyMapper project, Canberra-based company, Electro Optic Systems on building the new telescope.
“EOS have used their expertise and professionalism to build, deliver and commission this complex instrument,” Senator Carr said.
“SkyMapper will produce survey data far surpassing what was originally planned. It is a notable achievement for Australia’s growing space industry sector and a reassuring sign that Australian universities and industry can connect.
“The Government recognises the importance of space science for Australia. That’s why we’ve provided $160.5 million for Space Science and Astronomy infrastructure under the $1.1 billion Super Science initiative in the Federal Budget.”
For further information on the SkyMapper telescope visit the ANU’s website.
Media contact: Catriona Jackson, Minister's Office, 0417 142 238
Anne-Marie Lansdown, Department, 0423 568 595, 02 6276 1368