The SOAR Telescope

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The SOAR Telescope
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The southern part of heaven
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September, 1997
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April 17, 1998 Groundbreaking
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Primary and secondary mirrors are in place!
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April 2004
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and the future in Chapel Hill
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Southern African Large Telescope
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PROMPT Panchromatic Robotic Optical Monitoring
and Polarimetry TelescopesDan
ReichartUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill
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PROMPT SITE AT CTIO
Cerro Tololo (right and below) and Cerro Pachon
(above). PROMPT is going here
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EXCAVATION (10/04)
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Deployment of the Goodman Spectrograph

• La Serena, Chile
• June-August 2004

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Optical Components in Chapel Hill
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Mechanical Components in Chapel Hill
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Shipping and Receiving
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In the Gemini Labs
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First Lab Image
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Into the SOAR Nasmyth Cage
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Flexure Tests
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To the Mountain
La Salchicha Grande
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Waiting..
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First Light
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Robotic Telescope II (III and IV)
No dome --- to shorten response time Better
robotic mount Will carry three telescopes and
cameras New control software, responds to GRB
alerts sent over internet Will continuously
survey 2000 sq. deg (1/10 th available sky)
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Gamma Ray Burst Telescopes
Wide Field Survey
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Infrared
Response Time (sec)
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Rapid Variability
100
1000
0.1
1
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Telescope Aperture (meters)