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Asteroid Hunters Bring Oschin Telescope Into New Age

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Contact: Jane Platt     (818) 354-0880

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                          June 21, 1999

ASTEROID HUNTERS BRING OLDIE-BUT-GOODIE INTO NEW AGE

     NASA astronomers searching for asteroids headed toward Earth 
are expanding their sky-watching repertoire by adding high-tech, 
computerized electronic upgrades to the classic 1.2-meter-
diameter (48-inch) Oschin telescope atop Palomar Mountain near 
San Diego, California.

     Right now, NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) system 
uses a fully automated charge-coupled device (CCD) camera mounted 
on a 1-meter-diameter (39-inch) telescope atop Mt. Haleakela on 
Maui, HI.  The U.S. Air Force operates the telescope.  

     NEAT scientists will computerize the pointing system of the 
1.2-meter (48-inch) Oschin telescope, which currently uses a 
human operator exclusively, and replace photographic plates with 
a modern electronic camera.  The refurbished telescope will 
enable them to peer deeper into the sky than they can from 
Haleakela - they'll see 20 percent farther, and their field of 
view will be 10 times wider.  

     "Imagine watching the Super Bowl on your 25-inch TV and 
then switching to an 80-inch giant screen TV," said Dr. Steven 
Pravdo, NEAT project manager and co-investigator.  "But in this 
case, it's even better than the TV analogy because, with the 
wider field, we'll see many more asteroids in each picture - 
those that would be on the 'sidelines' of other telescopes."

     The NEAT-Oschin alliance got a test run on June 9 and 10, 
when Pravdo and two other JPL astronomers, Dr. David Rabinowitz 
and Jeffrey Schroeder, took the NEAT camera to the Oschin 
telescope.  They obtained the first-ever electronic images from 
that venerable sky eye.  

     "This experiment proved that the Oschin telescope will be a 
powerful tool in our hunt for near-Earth objects," Pravdo said. 
"We'll spruce up this gentle giant and put it to excellent use 
helping us find asteroids," 

     "For ten years, I've dreamed and mapped out plans for adding 
electronic detectors to this telescope," said Eleanor Helin, 
principal investigator for NEAT, which has been operating since 
December 1995.  "We've been able to study only a fraction of the 
sky so far, and we've been looking for ways to cover the entire 
sky."

     NASA's goal is to find all asteroids larger than 1 kilometer 
(0.6 mile) across within 10 years.  "This will achieve one-third 
of that goal, with the remaining two-thirds filled by the 
Haleakela camera and other viewing sites," Helin explained.  "The 
Oschin telescope at Palomar may become the premier finder of 
near-Earth objects in the world."

     It's estimated there are 1,000 to 2,000 asteroids larger 
than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) that approach within 48 million 
kilometers (30 million miles) of Earth.  Less than 20 percent 
have been detected so far.  Although the vast majority are 
harmless and will never pose a threat to Earth, scientists want 
to keep track of the tiny percentage whose orbits could 
eventually put them on a collision course with Earth.

     The Oschin telescope, operated by the California Institute 
of Technology, Pasadena, CA, has served as a world-class 
telescope since it was built in 1949.  Helin used the telescope 
to discover near-Earth asteroids and comets from the late 1970s 
to the early 1990s.  The instrument is currently completing the 
second of two sky surveys that serve as a resource to astronomers 
worldwide.  The Oschin telescope has done yeoman's duty for 
astronomers through the years, but it has been surpassed in many 
ways by newer, more advanced telescopes.  Nonetheless, it remains 
the telescope with the largest field of view. 

     NASA will fund the Oschin upgrade, estimated to cost 
$300,000 to $500,000, and Caltech will provide the use of the 
facility and the infrastructure.  Within about two years, 
astrophysicists from Yale University in New Haven, CT, may 
provide further high-tech upgrades to maximize the potential of 
the Palomar telescope. 

     Images gathered by NEAT using the Oschin telescope, along 
with general information on NEAT, are available at the following 
web site:

     http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov/

Information on the Palomar Observatory is available at:

     http://astro.caltech.edu/observatories/palomar/public/

     The NEAT project is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of 
Space Science, Washington, DC.  JPL is a division of Caltech. 

                         ##### 

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