Kitt Peak Observatory Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory NOAO System Science Center
Image Credit: DESI Collaboration
June 2019 NOAO Newsletter
The June 2019 NOAO Newsletter is online and ready to download. It contains sections on Science Highlights, Community Science & Data, System Observing, and NOAO Operations & Staff.
On the Cover
First Light image (of M51) with the new DESI Corrector Assembly (CA) on the Mayall 4m telescope on Kitt Peak. The CA consists of four ~1m diameter lenses and a two-element atmospheric dispersion corrector, as well as the hexapod, used for fine-motion and focus control of the CA. The image was made with the Commissioning Instrument, composed of five CCD cameras temporarily installed in the DESI focal plane.
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During the July 2 solar eclipse students from the University of La Serena, with Juan Seguel (CTIO) & Rob Sparks (NOAO), will replicate Eddington’s experiment that confirmed Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. -
New results from Hubble confirm that the Universe today is expanding faster than expected. The development relies on an earlier study carried out with the SMARTS 1.5m telescope at CTIO. -
Using an artificial intelligence algorithm to sift through massive amounts of data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, a team of astronomers, including NOAO astronomer Mark Everett, has discovered two new exoplanets. -
Observations made with the Event Horizon Telescope have captured the first picture of a supermassive black hole. NOAO Astronomer Tod Lauer is a member of the EHT research team. -
On April 1, the Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak emerged from hibernation and, for the first time, starlight poured through the six large lenses of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). -
How many and what kind of star clusters have been born in the history of the Magellanic Clouds? A new project, the Local Group Cluster Search, invites citizen scientists to help find out! -
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, which is being installed on the KPNO Mayall telescope, will use an array of robot fiber-positioners to automatically capture the spectra of 5000 galaxies at a time.
NOAO is the national center for ground-based nighttime astronomy in the United States and is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. If you would like information about solar astronomy, visit the National Solar Observatory. If you would like information about radio astronomy, visit the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.