Giant eye spots 'first light'
2005-09-01 15:24
Cape Town - The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) project has released its first colour images, marking the achievement of "first light" and the successful debut of full operation for SALTICAM.
SALTICAM is a $600 000 digital camera designed and built for SALT at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).
SALT is the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere, and equal to the largest in the world. Gathering more than 25 times as much light as any existing African telescope, SALT can detect objects as faint as a candle flame on the Moon.
The sample images now released for the first time were taken during the camera's first trial period of operation, which also achieved SALT's first significant scientific results.
Five years ago, on the first day of southern hemisphere spring, a few hundred people gathered for the SALT ground-breaking ceremony.
On a windswept hilltop near the tiny Karoo town of Sutherland, home since the early 1970s to SAAO's research telescopes, dignitaries turned the first soil. Much has happened since that day, and SALT is now nearing completion.
More to come
A major recent milestone was the installation in May of the last of the 91 hexagonal mirror segments that comprises SALT's mammoth primary mirror array, stretching 11 metres across. Another major milestone is attaining "first light" with the telescope's full array of mirrors and its new imaging camera, SALTICAM.
The biggest milestone for 2005 will be the official opening of SALT on November 10 by President Thabo Mbeki.
"SALT was an initiative of South African astronomers that won support from the South African government, not simply because it was a leap forward in astronomical technology, but because of the host of spin-off benefits it could bring to the country," said project scientist David Buckley.
"Indeed the SALT project has become an iconic symbol for what can be achieved in Science and Technology in the new South Africa."
However, SALT is not simply a South African project. It is an international partnership involving 11 different partners from six countries on four continents - including Germany, Poland, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.
The declaration of first light signifies that SALT has arrived on the astronomical scene.
There is still telescope and instrument commissioning to complete, as well as full optimisation of SALT and its subsystems. This will continue for several months, after which astronomers expect that SALT and its instruments will meet or exceed all the original design goals.
On the net:
www.salt.ac.za