Latest National Optical Astronomy Observatory Stories

John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online One challenge of ground-based optical astronomy is that photons in this regime, and nearby infrared and ultraviolet bands, get refracted in our atmosphere. The consequence is that imaging of astronomical objects can be blurred, making it difficult to identify and characterize individual objects. Compensating for these effects can be tricky though, as our atmosphere is not a static system. Rather, it is in a state of...

National Optical Astronomy Observatory Watching starbirth isn’t easy: tens of millions of years are needed to form a star like our Sun. Much like archeologists who reconstruct ancient cities from shards of debris strewn over time, astronomers must reconstruct the birth process of stars indirectly, by observing stars in different stages of the process and inferring the changes that take place. Studies show that half of the common stars, including our Sun, formed in massive clusters, rich...

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope The first truly global telescope came a significant step closer to completion this month with the installation and first light on three new 1-meter telescopes at the South Africa Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) near Sutherland, South Africa. A team of five Las Cumbres engineers, technicians, and a postdoc, convened at Sutherland for three weeks during late February and early March to achieve this feat. "The South African Astronomical Observatory...

Thirty Meter Telescope Today the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a cooperative agreement to the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Observatory Corporation to explore a potential partnership between the organizations. The award is a milestone for the TMT project, initiating a broad dialog between TMT, the NSF and the United States' astronomical community. The partnership-planning award also paves the way for the NSF to confer with TMT's international partners. "The NSF award is a...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and WIYN partners have offered this extraordinary wide-field image of the Cygnus loop as an end of the year finale. The image, three degrees to a side, covers an area of the sky about 45 times that of the full moon without sacrificing high resolution. The image is one of the largest astronomical images ever made at over 600 million pixels in size. Located some 1,500 light-years from...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A spectacular new image of the Bubble Nebula, named NGC 7635, has been captured by the new camera known as the One Degree Imager (ODI) that is being commissioned at the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory outside Tucson, Arizona. Located in the constellation Cassiopeia, the Bubble Nebula is approximately 10 light-years across. It is a shell of gas and dust carved out by stellar wind created by the massive...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Today marks the 50th anniversary celebration of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), while next week is the dedication of a new instrument for the observatory. The Dark Energy Camera was installed on the Victor M. Blanco telescope at CTIO, and it will be conducting powerful surveys by collecting light from 100,000 galaxies located up to 8 billion light years away. The camera has 62 charged-coupled devices with an...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Approximately 8 billion years ago, the light from distant galaxies began streaming towards Earth. Now, at a mountaintop observatory in Chile, the newly constructed Dark Energy Camera (DECam), the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created, has captured that ancient starlight and recorded it for the first time. Early on September 12, 2012, the DECam, mounted atop the Victor Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American...

On August 29th, the lights went off and the stars turned on during a special event at Beijing Planetarium. As part of the meeting of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), Dr. Malcolm Smith, National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) was honored for his long and substantial contributions to light pollution abatement on behalf of astronomical observatories and the community at large. Dr. David Silva (NOAO Director) and Bob Parks (International Dark-Sky Association Executive Director)...

With approval from the National Science Board, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director will advance the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) to the final design stage. This action permits the NSF Director to include funds for LSST construction in a future budget request. To be located in Chile, the LSST is a proposed 8-meter wide-field survey telescope that will survey the entire sky approximately twice per week, delivering a large and comprehensive data set that will transform...