Alachua Astronomy Club: FirstLight Tenth Year -- Cook 1988 June

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	FirstLight's First Ten Years	Member Astronomical League	Member International Dark-Sky Association
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FirstLight is the official, monthly publication of the Alachua Astronomy Club (AAC),
Gainesville, Florida USA. Copyright © 1987-99. All rights reserved.

Introduction & Dedication

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1988

Tenth Anniversary Edition: From June 1988 FirstLight

SST-Spectroscopic Survey Telescope

by George Russell
More than half of all professional astronomical observations involve spectroscopy. Spectroscopy involves the analysis of light that has been separated into its component colors or wavelengths. Astronomers use spectroscopy to acquire such vital, information as the compositions, motions, temperatures, pressures, distances, and ages of celestial objects.

Astronomers from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Texas are building an innovative telescope dedicated to spectroscopy. Unlike traditional multi-purpose telescopes, the SST is designed to minimize costs while maximizing efficiency of a single function. When dedicated, the SST will consist of seventy-three 36 inch diameter mirrors. All of the mirrors will be arranged in a single large framework to form a single mirror with an effective aperture of 8 meters (about 25 feet) in diameter. This is larger than any telescope currently in use.

The SST will rotate in azimuth (parallel to the horizon) but not in altitude (up and down). It will take advantage of earth's spin on its axis by letting the sky move through its chosen field of view for any given set of observations.

The collected light will be brought to a focus at a moving assembly on top of the telescope. As the sky "drifts by," this focal plane assembly will automatically track the star or galaxy being observed for up to an hour, more than enough time to acquire detailed spectroscopic information from almost any astronomical target. A small TV camera will travel along with the focal plane assembly to help locate and track desired objects in the sky. Most of the light, however, will be fed from the telescope focus to a separate room through a long set of fiber optics. The spectrographs will be located in this other room.

Because of the use of small inexpensive mirrors, along with a number of other design innovations, the SST will cost about $6 million, as opposed to the $50-100 million cost of a telescope with a comparable single-surface mirror.

The SST will be located at the University of Texas & Austin McDonald Observatory in Ft. Davis, Texas, and should be operational by 1991.

The foregoing was adapted from the May/June 1988 issue of STAR DATE published by the McDonald Observatory Public Information office by the University of Texas at Austin.

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