They are also getting lots of redshift data. See Discover Mag Nov 2001. The Chicago Tribune article completely left out what is really unique about the telescope. They can do several thousand redshift determinations a night in sync with the photometric images.
Discover magazine November 2001 had the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as it cover article - online at//www.discover.com It did a much better job of explaining the 3d process and the special nature of the telescope. The impression that most of the pictures are not looked at is very misleading. Each image is scanned by software to identify 500 or so "most interesting" light sources. The coordinates are then transmitted to a machine shop. There they make a custom aluminum plate with 500 small holes corresponding to the selected sources. The plate is returned to the telescope and later reattached with fiber optic cables attached to each of the holes. The telescope is repositioned to where it was when the original image was taken. Then the light from each of the selected sources can be run through a spectrograph. This allows them to determine the distance to the star or galaxy based on the red shift. It is this very accurate 3rd dimension over a huge number of sources that makes this survey so unique and exciting.
Discover magazine November 2001 had the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as it's cover article (online at//www.discover.com) It did a much better job of explaining the 3d process and the special nature of the telescope. The impression that most of the pictures are not looked at is VERY misleading. Each image is scanned by software to identify 500 or so "most interesting" light sources. The coordinates are then transmitted to a machine shop. There they make a custom aluminum plate with 500 small holes corresponding to the selected sources. The plate is returned to the telescope and later reattached with fiber optic cables attached to each of the holes. The telescope is repositioned to where it was when the original image was taken. Then the light from each of the selected sources can be run through a spectrograph. This allows them to determine the distance to the star or galaxy based on the red shift. It is this very accurate 3rd dimension over a huge number of sources that makes this survey so unique and exciting.
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They are also getting lots of redshift data. See Discover Mag Nov 2001. The Chicago Tribune article completely left out what is really unique about the telescope. They can do several thousand redshift determinations a night in sync with the photometric images.
Discover magazine November 2001 had the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as it cover article - online at //www.discover.com It did a much better job of explaining the 3d process and the special nature of the telescope. The impression that most of the pictures are not looked at is very misleading. Each image is scanned by software to identify 500 or so "most interesting" light sources. The coordinates are then transmitted to a machine shop. There they make a custom aluminum plate with 500 small holes corresponding to the selected sources. The plate is returned to the telescope and later reattached with fiber optic cables attached to each of the holes. The telescope is repositioned to where it was when the original image was taken. Then the light from each of the selected sources can be run through a spectrograph. This allows them to determine the distance to the star or galaxy based on the red shift. It is this very accurate 3rd dimension over a huge number of sources that makes this survey so unique and exciting.
Discover magazine November 2001 had the Sloan Digital Sky Survey as it's cover article (online at //www.discover.com) It did a much better job of explaining the 3d process and the special nature of the telescope. The impression that most of the pictures are not looked at is VERY misleading. Each image is scanned by software to identify 500 or so "most interesting" light sources. The coordinates are then transmitted to a machine shop. There they make a custom aluminum plate with 500 small holes corresponding to the selected sources. The plate is returned to the telescope and later reattached with fiber optic cables attached to each of the holes. The telescope is repositioned to where it was when the original image was taken. Then the light from each of the selected sources can be run through a spectrograph. This allows them to determine the distance to the star or galaxy based on the red shift. It is this very accurate 3rd dimension over a huge number of sources that makes this survey so unique and exciting.