Pull on the right ropes and the dome at the Altazimuth pavilion at the Royal Observatory Greenwich swings around and opens up to reveal a thick band of London sky. The Victorian building is about to emerge from a major refurbishment and inside the dome sits the main attraction: a cutting-edge telescope that will make Greenwich a working observatory for the first time in 60 years.
The installation of the Annie Maunder Astrographic Telescope (Amat) has staff at Greenwich palpably excited. Over the obligatory banging of builders at work, Brendan Owens and Tom Kerss, both astronomers at the site, admit that they have been working late, very late, to put the kit through its paces. If they are tired from being up all hours, they do not let it show. “It’s a little bit addictive,” Owens says.
Named after one of the first women to work at Greenwich, the £50,000 telescope is arguably the most impressive that can be bought off the shelf. It has the power to capture high magnification still and moving images of the sun, moon and the planets of the solar system. Farther afield, it will study the chemical makeup of nebulae, those interstellar clouds of dust and gas, and watch alien worlds such as the massive Jupiter-like 51 Pegasi b loop around their parent stars.
The images and readings taken by the telescope will support astrophysics research and be shared with schools and the public through live-streams, the Peter Harrison Planetarium next door, and workshops held at the observatory. To help out with the running of the telescope the observatory is looking to teams of volunteers, many of whom are likely to come from local enthusiasts’ clubs. “We want to make use of every clear night we get,” said Kerss.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
