Quote:
Originally Posted by Robert9
My understanding is that it's only the program that's ending.
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Hi Robert,
That's correct.
There are many telescopes at Sidings Springs. Some are run by the AAO, some by ANU
and some by other bodies such as UNSW.
Rob McNaught's near-earth object search program was called the "Siding Spring
Survey" (SSS). It was the southern counterpart to the Arizona based Catalina
Sky Survey (CSS).
The SSS employed one of the smaller telescopes on the mountain, namely the
0.5m Uppsala Schmidt. Built in 1956, it had been refurbished and fitted with a
4K x 4K CCD.
Rob also employed an array of PC's loaded with software supplied by the CSS
team.
My guess would be that it would be the camera and PC's that would be the
equipment that would be returned to the U.S. or possibly written off for re-deployment
on other projects here.
The telescope itself belongs to ANU and would remain.
The CSS and SSS were effectively brought about by a directive of U.S. Congress.
They mandated the survey identify NEO's down to 1km with a 90% confidence
interval.
My understanding is that the surveys met those goals. What would possibly
be required is a new goal and a new mandate.
Being such a small telescope with relatively modest equipment, it could be re-deployed
at very short notice if a new program were launched and someone like Rob or Gordon were still available.