image 1. Steward Observatory 0.9-meter telescope Spacewatch is the name of a group at The University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory founded by
Prof. Tom
Gehrels and Dr. Robert S. McMillan in 1980 Now, one of the largest telescopes in the asteroids astrometry field. Spacewatch runs the 0.9-m telescope of the Steward Observatory, the oldest
one on Kitt Peak. It was installed in 1921 on the UA campus and it has the first large telescope mirror successfully cast in the United States. The telescope was moved to Kitt Peak in 1962.
In 1969 it was used to discover the first optical pulsar. The telescope was given to Spacewatch and
subsequently was the first telescope dedicated solely to planetary astronomy. On this
telescope, Spacewatch developed the
technique of scanning the sky with a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera and has been using it to survey for asteroids and
comets since 1984. (from the Spacewatch homepage) |
