Apache Point Observatory awarded $16M
SUNSPOT – Apache Point Observatory has received a $16 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that will help the facility continue to map the entire sky over a five-year period, starting in 2020.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a telescope operating out of both the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot and Carnegie’s Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, has created the world’s largest digital 3-D map of the universe.
“The data becomes available to everyone, every scientist as well as every student, amateur astronomer or anybody that’s ever wanted to look at it,” Apache Point Observatory Operations Manager Mark Klaene said.
“It’s all digitally accessed through the internet. We’re continuing on that legacy and building on it. Currently, we just started in the southern sky because parts of the Milky Way are only visible there, so we started operations in Chile about six months ago with a new instrument.”
Read more: https://www.abqjournal.com/1097024/apache-point-observatory-awarded-16m.html