The Telescope We will be using the 1.9 metre telescope at Mt Stromlo Observatory, 17km from campus. Built in the 1950s, it was for a long time the joint largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. During its long and distinguished career, it has done fundamental work on stars, black holes, planets and cosmology. This is basically a digital camera an extremely souped up version of what you find in normal digital cameras and camcorders. You cannot look through the telescope your images will appear as digital files on the computer, ready for printing or analysis.
Exposure times can range from a second up to an hour.
Each team will have at least an hour on the telescope more if the weather is kind. May We will only use the last three nights if the first two runs are clouded out. Each team can choose between three options. Invent your own project. You may have an idea of what you would like to study.