SkyMapperSkyMapper

SkyMapperSkyMapper

2Slide

Who is SkyMapper?

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

SkyMapperSkyMapper

3Slide

It’s a long way to the topof S S O

E1 Title: The Southern Sky Survey

E2 Project Description, Aims and Background

Project Description and Aims: We propo se to use the robotic Great Melbourne Telescope (GMT) to car ry out an optical survey of the entire southern sky. The survey will be: • Multi-Colour. We will observe at six wavelengths, from the near-UV to the near-IR

1. Photometric. We will measure the brightness of each object detected, at each wavelength, with systematic errors of less than 0.02 mag

2. Astrometric. We will determine the absolute positions of the objects we detect with an accuracy of better than 0.05 arcsec.

3. Sensitive to variability. Each part of the sky will be observed multiple times, to look for time variability and movement.

The RSAA director has guaranteed that at least 80% of the Great Melbourne Telescope observing time will be devoted to this project, over 5 years. We will generate 25 terabytes of data and will detect more than 109 objects. All calibrated data will be made publicly available on-line via the ANU supercomputer facility. We anticipate that the survey will be used for an enormous variety of scientific projects by astrophysicists worldwide for decades to come. The team members, however, are particularly interested in the following science goals: • Mapping the distribution of dark matter in the outer regions of our own galaxy.

• Searching for high redshift QSOs to probe the reionisation of the universe.

1 Jan 2003 - Our ARC DP grant starts.

SkyMapperSkyMapper

4Slide

My own picture from 20th January 2003

SkyMapperSkyMapper

5Slide

8 April 2003... Bushfire report to ARC

• 5. Supervise construction of a wide field (approx 7sq degree field of view) 1.8 meter telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. (New Goal)

• 6. Supervise construction of a >100 million pixel CCD array for the Siding Spring Survey Telescope. (New Goal)

• 7. Start taking data for the Southern Sky survey using the new Survey Telescope.

SkyMapperSkyMapper

6Slide

• Aug 2004• Contract

let for 1.35m SkyMapper Telescope to EOS.

SkyMapperSkyMapper

7Slide

The Mirror Crack’d - 2005

The sequel

The Mirror Crack’d Part III

The Mirror Crack’d - The Final Chapter

Dr. Zhivago to the rescue...

SkyMapperSkyMapper

8Slide

2006 - Russian Deliver more or less on time

SkyMapperSkyMapper

9Slide

Secondary from SAGEM - 2006 - on time

SkyMapperSkyMapper

10

Slide

• The whole thing put together mid 2007, in Tucson

SkyMapperSkyMapper

11

Slide

• First light, Tucson,

• July 2007

SkyMapperSkyMapper

12

Slide

• Bonn-Shutter - 2006 - arrives on time

SkyMapperSkyMapper

13

Slide

2006 - Focal Plane Dewar assembled

SkyMapperSkyMapper

14

Slide

SkyMapperSkyMapper

15

Slide

$40,000 of filter glass from

Russia...

Complete with with

Cheese &

Pepperoni

SkyMapperSkyMapper

16

Slide

$2.5M of CCDs from E2V - arrive in 2006, on time

SkyMapperSkyMapper

17

Slide

Dome - 2007

SkyMapperSkyMapper

18

Slide

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

July 2008

SkyMapperSkyMapper

19

Slide

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Telescope to SSO Sep 2008

SkyMapperSkyMapper

20

Slide

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Telescope to SSO Sep 2008

SkyMapperSkyMapper

21

Slide

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Telescope to SSO Sep 2008

SkyMapperSkyMapper

22

Slide

Telescope to SSO Sep 2008

SkyMapperSkyMapper

23

Slide

This week..

SkyMapperSkyMapper

24

Slide

Telescope:Site (Final) acceptance tests of Dome

happening now. Annino on his way up to site.

Site (Final) acceptance test of Telescope ~19 December.

As of OctoberTelescope meets performance specs at

Focal plane centre. Some primary support issues that are being addressed right now before handover.

Should be tested off axis before hand-over.

Test of full field of view performance awaits our theFocal Plane Array.

SkyMapperSkyMapper

25

Slide

Focal Plane Array:

Focal Plane Array nearing completion. Low noise, fast readout demonstrated for 2

chips (14s, 4e-)Problems exist in reading out more than 2

chips.To read out more than 16 chips

Waiting for new boards from UH(due anytime)

Waiting for power supplies (6-8 weeks)

Filters u,r,z completed... v,g about to be be assembledi awaits final coatings

SkyMapperSkyMapper

26

Slide

Commissioning (?):Will deploy with a working 16-chip system to be upgraded at site. We will not deploy a dodgy system.Could be Feb, but not earlier.

AlignmentPreliminary Science demonstration(Will call for targets once we know when,

and the state of the system)

Regular Operations as soon as possible afterwards.