SkyMapper is among the first of a new breed of surveying telescopes which are able to scan the nighttime skies more quickly and deeper than ever before. The SkyMapper telescope will provide a deep digital map of the southern sky which will allow astronomers to study everything from nearby objects such as asteroids in our solar system to the most distant objects in the universe called quasars. The data taken by the SkyMapper telescope will be shared with astronomers around the world via the Virtual Observatory initiative, so that every possible use can be made of this resource.

The SkyMapper Telescope

• Is a 1.3m telescope with an 8-sq degree field of view
• Has an integrated 16kx16k CCD mosaic with 0.5" pixels covering 5.7-sq degrees
• Is located at the Australian National University's Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, under the dark skies of central western NSW
• The telescope had its first light in 2008
• The facility will become operational on the 25th May 2009 and commence regular science operations in late 2009 after commissioning
• is fully automated - data is be transfered to ANU supercomputers for analysis
• Will conduct a multi-colour, multi-epoch survey of the southern hemisphere known as the Southern Sky Survey.
• Is a replacement of the Great Melbourne Telescope, destroyed in the bushfires of January 18, 2003.