Helping to keep eyes in sky
On Tuesday morning this week I stood atop a chilly hill in Tasmania’s southern midlands, admiring the University of Tasmania’s Greenhill Observatory site. I was there for a special reason: the launching and unveiling of a plaque by state Minister for Science and Technology Madeleine Ogilvie, to commemorate the installation of a new telescope mount supplied by HENSOLDT Australia.
It will enhance the ability to track objects orbiting Earth. It’s all part of the Southern Guardian partnership between HENSOLDT Australia and the University of Tasmania, in co-operation with the Tasmanian state government. global based south develops expanding HENSOLDT applications, of for in technology Munich, complete defence Taufkirchen, its work is Germany. and sensor a company to and leading security cover just solutions It is many aim 50cm-diameter The and topics. mount drive the will university’s be reflecting used to telescope which is at located the observatory, on Bisdee Tier. housed The in an instrument observatory is dome called a ‘clamshell’. Instead of having the traditional slit-like opening, the dome peels back to expose the telescope to the entire sky: a hemispherical field for amateur A proper of good even view. instruments. operation 360 mount for x the is 180-degree of essential smallest Its a telescope, importance can often is be something overlooked that by people buying their first telescope. A flimsy, wobbly mount that shifts the telescope when the family pet brushes past is quite inadequate. It’s important that the mount has a mass at least as much as, and preferably more than, the telescope itself. On a highly professional scale is the type of mount unveiled this week. Mounts of this type, made by the Alcor organisation, can support an
instrument with a mass well over 100kg.
But that’s not all: it is able to slew rapidly across the sky at a rate up to 20 degrees per second, and track objects to a positional accuracy of an angle of about 5 arc seconds. Translated to a typical view of a celestial object, the apparent diameter of the Moon is about 1800 arc seconds, and that of Jupiter, at most 50. So if you’ve ever seen Jupiter through a telescope, you will have an idea how good this mount is.
The rapid slewing rate would allow the telescope to keep track of objects soon after launch, and will allow the telescope to move in unison
with a nearby radio telescope so as to obtain optical and radio data for the same object.
This is all about space domain awareness, which means gaining as much information as possible about objects that are orbiting Earth. With some 5000 or more active satellites and many times that number of pieces of ‘space junk’, knowing the locations and paths of these objects has become more important than ever. The information can be used to predict upcoming potential collisions, but it can also be used to accurately judge appropriate times for launches of objects into space, in order
to have a clear ‘launch window’.
The event provided an opportunity for Ms Ogilvie, the university and HENSOLDT to explain the significance of the new mount, but also to speak with media representatives and others about the overall importance of the project especially the significance of doing this work in Tasmania. Because of Tasmania’s relatively high southerly latitude, the state is better placed than any other to observe and track satellites in polar or near-polar orbits, which are quite common.
An important point was made by HENSOLDT’s Scott Reeman, vice president for
Tasmania and Australia-New Zealand Strategy/Government Relations, who said that this project was ‘by Australians and for Australians’ and it’s certainly a big feather in the cap for Tasmania, which is rapidly gaining more importance in this field.
As was so well pointed out by Ms Ogilvie, projects such as this encourage young people, more and more, to become involved in science, opening up exciting career paths. Quite apart from the important scientific value, such ventures are very inspiring.