SuperWASP-South

Construction of the second SuperWASP observatory, located at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) near Sutherland in South Africa, is now complete and science observations have started in earnest.

SAAO (SuperWASP-South to the left, SALT on far right)

Following many months of construction by members of the Keele Astrophysics Group, work on SuperWASP-South is now complete and the observatory is collecting data. The observatory is now running in full robotic mode, carefully supervised over the web from the UK, with on-site support from the ever helpful SAAO staff.
To see the live status of SW-S click here: Live Status
The observatory will operate all year round, an advantage of this site, and we hope to release our first results by the end of the summer 2006.

Click below for larger images.

SWASP-S and Springbok

Inside the computer room

All 8 cameras attached (2005/11/03)
Credit: David Anderson, Keele Univ.

To see a time-lapse movie of SW-S observing over two days click here (10MB) (PFLM/DRA Keele Univ.)
For more images see the SuperWASP-South Gallery by clicking here
 

First light Images
 

The top left picture shows one of the first images taken by the SuperWASP-South observatory located in Sutherland, South Africa. The image shows one of the most famous constellations in the Southern hemisphere,  Crux, also known as the Southern Cross. Crux consists of 4 stars, the brightest of which is a double star called Acrux to the far left. Parts of the coal sack nebula are also visible towards the bottom left.
The image is a processed composite of several exposures taken with one of the 4 cameras currently installed at the south observatory.  (The variations in the background level are caused by thermal noise that will disappear when the cameras are fully operational).

The second image also shows the Southern Cross but was taken on a Canon 350 digital camera (8 mega pixels at ISO1600) using one of the SuperWASP lenses.

Images were taken in August 2005 by PFLM and DW.