SSO Update

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue44 1–30 September 2023

A Golden Anniversary for the UKST

Fifty years ago, on 17 August 1973, the UKST telescope at SSO was officially opened. The UKST was built to do a photographic survey of the southern sky that was then used to find targets for its bigger sister, the AAT, located just up the hill. At the time of the opening, the AAT had not yet started operations - we’ll celebrate the 50th anniversary of the AAT next year. 

50 years and 2 days later, on 19 August 2023, a dinner at the Coona Club was held to celebrate the anniversary. It was a lovely occasion, with people from all over Australia at the dinner and, as is befitting of the times, a Zoom call for those who could not join in person.

Once the photographic survey was largely completed, a new fibre-fed spectrograph called 6dF was installed. For the next decade, the UKST was used to do two spectroscopic surveys of the entire southern sky: the 6dF Galaxy Survey and the RAVE stellar survey. In 2014, the USKT was refurbished, and the TAIPAN spectrograph was installed. 

The scientific legacy of the UKST will be long-lasting.  The now-digitised photographic plates that the UKST took are still used by astronomers to prepare observations for larger facilities, and the data collected by the 6dF Galaxy Survey and RAVE are still being used.

Who said the seeing at SSO is bad?

Many astronomers often complain about the seeing at SSO.  While the average seeing is not as good as it is on some of the premium sites in Chile, there are occasions where it is very good, as can be seen from this photo of Saturn that was taken by iTelescope’s Blake Estes. The structure of the rings, in particular the dark bands dividing the main rings, are usually only visible from the ground when the seeing is very good.

Early next year, we will install a seeing monitor at SSO, something that is long, long overdue.  We will then be able to fully understand how good the seeing at SSO can be.

Chris Lidman on behalf of the SSO team.

_{Image from left to right: Eric Coyte, Hazel Coyte, Gerard Hutchinson, Ken Russell, Rob Dean, Fred Watson, Duncan Waldron, Steve Lee, Pam Lee, and Russell Cannon.}