Scientists develop star camera

This summer, IU scientists helped to install the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team camera on the 48-inch Oschin Schmidt Telescope at the Palomar Observatory of the California Institute of Technology near Pasadena, Calif. \nThe QUEST camera is the largest astronomical camera in the world. It was designed and developed by a team of scientists from IU working in conjunction with scientists from Yale University. The camera will allow professional star-gazers and astronomers to increase the number of objects that can be analyzed and studied in the California night sky. \nIU's team of scientists developed the readout system for the QUEST camera and took charge of the installation. The readout system included electronics that control the camera. During the installation process, IU scientists ensured that QUEST worked on the telescope. \nJim Musser, chairman of the physics department, headed IU's team of scientists working on the QUEST project. His colleagues, who aided him in developing and installing QUEST, included Kent Honeycutt, Stu Mufson and Brice Adams from IU's Department of Astronomy and Mark Gebhard from IU's Department of Physics.\n"We have been working on this project now for about three years," Musser said. "The telescope was previously instrumented with photographic plates, which of course do not allow computer-based analysis. You can imagine that the ability to process an image using a computer provides an enormous increase in the number of objects which can be analyzed and studied."\nThe Quest Camera includes 112 CCDs -- charged-coupled devices. The charged-coupled device, a light-sensitive semiconductor technology used in digital cameras and image scanners, allows Palomar observatory to use a computer to analyze pictures from the universe as well as greatly decrease the amount of time needed to expose and develop images. \n"The drawback of using the older method of photographic plates was that it would take one hour for an exposure and 30 minutes to develop," said Bob Thicksten, a superintendent at Palomar observatory. "Now, (the whole process) can take one or two minutes."\nMost modern telescopes are equipped with similar CCD cameras. However, QUEST is unique because it covers a large field of view approximately four by four degrees. This broad range of view will allow scientists working at Palomar Observatory to detect much more phenomena in our universe than was previously possible.\n"It will be possible to increase the total number of detected supernova in other galaxies by an order of magnitude," Mussar said. "It is also uniquely suited to the search for near-Earth asteroids."\nScientists chose the Palomar Observatory as the location for the installation of the QUEST camera because it is the home of the Oschin Schmidt Telescope. The Palomar Observatory is responsible for discovering Quaoar in June 2002. At half the diameter of Pluto, Quaoar is the largest Kuiper belt object known and is the largest object to be found in our universe since Pluto was discovered in 1930. The fact that the Oschin Schmidt Telescope is automated and that there are on average 300 clear nights a year where Palomar is located are other reasons for choosing the Palomar Observatory for the home of QUEST. Palomar's Observatory will be used by scientists from CalTech, Cornell, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, IU and Yale. \nThe QUEST camera in Palomar is the second QUEST camera developed by a joint IU and Yale team. The first Quest camera was installed in the CIDA Schmidt telescope in Venezuela in 1997 and included 16 CCDs.\nOther projects currently being worked on by IU's Physics and Astronomy departments are the SNAP project, which is a space-based supernova observatory, and MINOS, a long range neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermilab. \n"The supernova studies are addressing the question of the makeup of the universe, and in particular what the primary form of matter/energy in the universe is," Musser said. "We now think that so-called 'dark energy' is the main energy component in the universe, largely as a result of studies involving these supernova. As to whether this leads to a unified field theory (is) hard to say"