[meteorite-list] New Telescope Dedicated on Haleakala

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jul 6 12:57:44 2006
Message-ID: <200607061655.JAA11703_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/PS1_dedication/

New Telescope Dedicated on Haleakala
University of Hawaii Press Release
July 5, 2006

The University of Hawaii's newest telescope, called PS1, was dedicated
on Friday, June 30 in a ceremony on the summit of Haleakala. The
telescope is a prototype for the larger Panoramic Survey Telescope and
Rapid Response System, or Pan-STARRS, telescope scheduled to start
scanning the skies for "killer asteroids" in 2010.

Institute for Astronomy Director Rolf Kudritzki described the dedication
of PS1 as "a historic event, since Pan-STARRS is the most important
University of Hawaii telescope project in 30 years." PS1 achieved "first
light" in late June, when engineers obtained test images of a number of
stars.

The telescope's mirror is only 71 inches in diameter, much smaller than
the twin Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, whose mirrors are nearly 400
inches each. What will make PS1 unique is that it will be equipped with
the world's largest digital camera, which is currently under
construction at the UH Institute for Astronomy's Manoa headquarters.
This camera will contain 1.4 billion pixels--about 300 times more than
is found in a typical commercial digital camera. Each night PS1 will
produce about 2000 gigabytes of data, most of which will be sent by
optical fiber to be analyzed at the Maui High Performance Computing
Center in Kihei.

Once the telescope is operational, the PS1 survey will survey the whole
sky every few days to find celestial objects that change or move. In
addition to discovering millions of asteroids, some of which might pose
a danger to Earth, PS1 will collect data to be analyzed by Hawaii
astronomers and an international consortium. The data collected will
help answer questions in areas of astronomy ranging from our solar
system to the entire observable universe.

In his speech at the dedication, Kudritzki noted that PS1 is the first
astronomy project to be constructed on Haleakala following the
guidelines established in the Haleakala High Altitude Observatory Site
Long Range Development Plan. Kahu Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr. provided
the "sense of place" training for all PS1 construction personnel, and he
also served as the cultural monitor who oversaw all construction.

According to Hawaiian oral history, the ancient Hawaiian astronomers and
their students studied the sky from Pu`u Kolekole on the summit of
Haleakala. The culmination of the dedication ceremony was the blessing
of the building by two of Maxwell's grandsons and the untying of the
maile lei, an act of respect, an expression of sense of place, and an
explicit acknowledgment of the ancient Hawaiian astronomers who first
observed the universe from Haleakala.

The telescope and its enclosure were built by EOS Technologies, based
in Tucson, Arizona and Canberra, Australia. The primary and secondary
mirrors were developed through the efforts of Corning Inc., Raleigh
Optical Corporation and Evaporated Metal Films Inc.
Received on Thu 06 Jul 2006 12:55:19 PM PDT