The Uppsala Schmidt Telescope is a

Schmidt telescope Schmidt may refer to: * Schmidt (surname), including list of people with the surname * Schmidt (singer) (born 1990), German pop and jazz singer * Schmidt (lunar crater), a small lunar impact crater * Schmidt (Martian crater), a crater on Mars * ...

located in Australia. It was moved to Siding Spring Observatory from

Mount Stromlo Observatory Mount Stromlo Observatory located just outside Canberra, Australia, is part of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University (ANU). History The observatory was established in 1924 as The Commonweal ...

in 1982. The instrument has been used to study the galaxy, asteroids and comets. It was last dedicated to the

Siding Spring Survey The Siding Spring Survey (SSS) was a near-Earth object search program that used the 0.5-metre Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, New South Wales, Australia. It was the southern hemisphere counterpart of the Catali ...

. The telescope had a

field of view The field of view (FoV) is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment. In the case of optical instruments or sensors it is a solid angle through which a detector is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. Human ...

of just over 6° through the use of a correcting plate, making its field three times as large as that of the

Anglo-Australian Telescope The Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) is a 3.9-metre equatorially mounted telescope operated by the Australian Astronomical Observatory and situated at the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia, at an altitude of a little over 1,100 m. In 2 ...

. It used a spherical rather than a parabolic mirror with 0.6 m correcting plate to achieve this. Photographic plates and film were used as detectors.

History

The Uppsala Schmidt Telescope was built in 1956 in Sweden. The telescope was originally located at the

. It was operational there between 1957 and 1982. It took the first images ever recorded of the Sputnik satellite in 1957. The telescope was modernised in 2000 and 2001 to include the experimental use of

Charge-coupled device A charge-coupled device (CCD) is an integrated circuit containing an array of linked, or coupled, capacitors. Under the control of an external circuit, each capacitor can transfer its electric charge to a neighboring capacitor. CCD sensors are a ...

s (CCDs) which are 40 times more sensitive than standard photography. The Uppsala Schmidt telescope was the instrument used by the

to conduct the only professional search for dangerous asteroids being made in the Southern Hemisphere. The telescope was decommissioned by the ANU late in 2013 and the

near-Earth object search program closed down after funding dried up.

Discoveries

The telescope was used by

Robert H. McNaught Robert H. McNaught (born in Scotland in 1956) is a Scottish-Australian astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University (ANU). He has collaborated with David J. Asher of the Armagh Observator ...

to discover 400 potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids which have a diameter greater than . McNaught used the telescope to discover comet

C/2006 P1 Comet McNaught, also known as the Great Comet of 2007 and given the designation C/2006 P1, is a non-periodic comet discovered on 7 August 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught using the Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope. I ...

, also known as the Great Daylight Comet of 2007, on the night of 7 August 2006. That comet was the brightest seen in over 40 years. Other notable discoveries made by the telescope include finding

7604 Kridsadaporn 7604 Kridsadaporn, provisional designation , is an unusual, carbonaceous asteroid and Mars-crosser on a highly eccentric orbit from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 31 August 1995, by Austra ...

C/2007 Q3 C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring), is an Oort cloud comet that was discovered by Donna Burton in 2007 at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.Evans, Kate (February 19, 2010).'Australian' comet captured by NASA. Australian Broadcastin ...

C/2009 R1 C/2009 R1 (McNaught), one of more than fifty comets known as Comet McNaught, is a non-periodic comet discovered by British-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught on September 9, 2009, using the Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope at Siding Sp ...

C/2013 A1 C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) is an Oort cloud comet discovered on 3 January 2013 by Robert H. McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory using the Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope. At the time of discovery it was 7.2 AU from the Sun and locat ...

("Siding Spring Comet"),

2012 LZ1 is an asteroid classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Amor group, approximately in diameter. It passed within 5.4 million kilometers (14 lunar distances) of Earth on 14 June 2012. It was discovered during t ...

(242450) 2004 QY2 ('' prov. designation:'' ) is an asteroid on an eccentric orbit, classified as near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 20 August 2004 by the Siding Spring Surv ...

and

(308242) 2005 GO21 is a large Aten near-Earth asteroid and potentially hazardous object. It has a well determined orbit with an observation arc of 7 years and an uncertainty parameter of 0. It was discovered on 1 April 2005 by the Siding Spring Survey at an ap ...

References

External links

Uppsala Southern Station
- history,images,links {{Portal bar, Australia, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System, Education, Science Optical telescopes Siding Spring Observatory 1957 establishments in Australia

History

Discoveries

See also

References

External links