SkyMapper - Exciting times ahead

[PeterM]

Just had this link sent to me. SkyMapper in NSW is about to come online starting perhaps one of the most exciting periods in Australian /Southern Astronomy.
http://news.anu.edu.au/?p=1165

PeterM

[jjjnettie]

Good news indeed. Wonder how old the data will be before it's released?

Where will information from the survey be stored? Who will be able to access it, and what kinds of applications will it be used for?
The huge amount of data will be processed and stored at the ANU super computing facility. After a period of data quality control we will make the data set freely available to the world via the Internet - any one can access it. Once it goes public we are sure it will be used for scientific purposes that we, the SkyMapper team, can’t even imagine - that is the way of science!

[erick]

Nice summary report and photo here:-

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/25/2580099.htm

Was that a petabyte or a petrabyte? :D

[Robert9]

Can you imagine a 268 Megapixel Camera :eyepop:

[snowyskiesau]

Here's an article (http://www.cio.com.au/article/307446/aussie_skymapper_telescope_open_new _windows_exploration?pp=1) about the computing power behind SkyMapper.

[pirate of skies]

WOW!
'The information will be stored in the ANU's super computer which can store a petabyte of data (1,000 terabytes).'

The computer power is huge ! But will probably need it.

[Enchilada]

OK . It is all brilliant and highly useful to one and sundry...
So why does it state it was the manufactured and tested in Arizona instead of in good ol' Australia? Aren't we good enough, or was it another tax-dodge? :shrug:

[Rod66]

If we follow Moore's law, 1 PetaByte Hard Drives will be common in pc's about 2020.

Rod

[theodog]

I had to. While at the dedication 'show' it had no camera attached.
I did ask one person about taking an eyepiece to it, but got no reply.

Obviously I asked the wrong bloke.;)

Everything else on the day seemed to go OK 'though.

[DJDD]

1 Petabyte?
with the amount of video my friends take of their children 1 Petebyte won't last long... :lol: