SSO Update

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue31 1–31 August 2022

GOTO-South

The study of explosive astronomical transients, such as supernovae, merging neutron stars, and gamma-ray bursts, is a field that is about to enter a golden age. This is due to new telescopes that will detect thousands of transients per night using electromagnetic waves (i.e. light), and to new facilities that will detect transient sources using alternative methods, such as gravitational waves and neutrinos. Because explosive transients are typically only briefly visible, understanding their nature requires rapid follow-up.

Located in the Southern Hemisphere and west of the major transient discovery facilities in South America, the telescopes at SSO are ideally placed to play a key role in this golden age. It is the reason why several organisations are building telescopes at SSO.

Construction of the GOTO-South facility has started. It consists of several wide field cameras inside two domes and is a copy of a similar facility that is currently being built in La Palma in the Northern Hemisphere.  The cameras of GOTO-South are capable of imaging large areas of the sky very quickly. It will be searching for the optical counterparts of gravitational wave events. Once the counterpart is discovered, we can expect that the 2.3-metre telescope will be used to observe the counterpart. For more information on the GOTO project, visit https://goto-observatory.org.

The telescope is located next the APT and is being built by the University of Warwick in collaboration with Monash University. During the excavation, the remains of what appears to be a power pole, perhaps dating back to the first years of SSO, was uncovered. Photo Credit: Michael Sharrott.

Farewell Randal Darko

After 10 years of dedicated service to the AAT, Randal Darko has left SSO and started in a new position that enables him to be closer to his family and closer to the coast. Randal has been an important part of the AAT over the past decade and has worked on several major projects, including, for example, the dome mirror elevator.

We wish Randal all the best for the future and we hope to see him when he passes through Coona from time to time.

Chris Lidman on behalf of the staff at SSO

_{Picture: The partially excavated platform that will be home to the two domes of the GOTO-South telescope.}