NEWS

CHAPEL HILL -- The year was 1986, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s approaching Bicentennial Observance in 1993 had research astronomers thinking bold thoughts about the future.

UNC’s first president, Joseph Caldwell, purchased the university’s first telescope in 1824. Seven years later, he oversaw construction of the first astronomical observatory at a U.S. university in Chapel Hill. John Motley Morehead III had gone on, in the 1940s, to give his alma mater the first planetarium ever built on a college campus.

UNC’s research astronomers wanted to add to the legacy – build a telescope with superb optics coupled with computerized remote controls and "quick change" instruments that would allow them to capture some of the universe’s most dazzling phenomena with only a few minutes’ advance notice, performance goals that more traditional single-instrument telescopes could not reach.

The dream that began in 1986 will be realized officially on Saturday (April 17), when a Carolina delegation joins other officials on Cerro Pachon, Chile, for a ceremony dedicating the Southern Astrophysical Research, or SOAR, telescope.

The SOAR telescope is a 4.1-meter aperture telescope designed to produce the best quality images of any observatory in its class worldwide, officials said.

UNC is holding its own ceremony today (April 16) to spotlight the SOAR telescope.

Funded by a $32 million public-private partnership among the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the Ministry of Science of Brazil, Michigan State University and UNC, SOAR is expected to begin routine science operations in late 2004.

"This is a great day in the life of Carolina as we celebrate an 18-year-old dream coming true for our scientists in physics and astronomy," said UNC Chancellor James Moeser.

"They saw the value of advancing the university’s international research presence, ultimately to the benefit of our own faculty, students and North Carolina. I commend the many partners who have made Carolina’s contributions to SOAR a reality, including the staunch support of our Congressional delegation, generous private donors and late Chancellor Michael Hooker, who believed in this project and was instrumental in making it a reality."

Dr. Bruce Carney, Samuel Baron professor and chairman of physics and astronomy, and Dr. Wayne Christiansen, professor and director of the Morehead Observatory, played critical roles in forging UNC’s successful partnerships for the project.

Carney, Christiansen, UNC Provost Robert Shelton and Dr. Robert McMahan, research professor of astronomy at UNC and senior adviser to Gov. Mike Easley for science and technology, are participating in today’s ceremony in Chapel Hill via the Internet and also will attend Saturday’s ceremony in Chile.

Key contributors to the project are Edgar and Samantha Cato of Charlotte and Coconut Grove, Fla.; Leonard Goodman of New York City and the Goodman family; Henry Cox of Seminole, Fla.; Richard and Kit Barkhouser of Danville, Va.; and Billy and Janie Armfield of Greensboro.

"These individuals understood that we were taking on a significant risk, and they clearly believed in the project’s success," said Carney.

SOAR is situated on Cerro Pachon, Chile, at an altitude of 8,775 feet above sea level, at the western edge of the Chilean Andes’ jagged peaks. Chile is one of the best sites in the Southern Hemisphere for viewing the Milky Way, the galaxy containing Earth and other planets in the solar system, and the Magellanic Clouds, the closest neighboring galaxies.

"SOAR from the very start has been envisioned as a telescope optimized to give the clearest images," said Christiansen.

A major advance will be SOAR’s "quick change" instruments. Most 4-meter telescopes in scientific use have equipment weighing tons. Depending on what type of equipment an astronomer needs to view the universe, such as infrared or visual cameras or spectrographs, it can take a day to change settings and tools. SOAR can switch instruments in a matter of seconds, Carney and Christiansen said.

Such rapid response to new scientific targets of opportunity, including explosive gamma-ray bursts, supernovae and other transient objects, allows research astronomers to be alerted within seconds and observe and collect data on phenomena within minutes.

Speed and clarity are key components to SOAR. The telescope’s major UNC-built instrument, the Abraham Goodman Spectrograph, will separate light in a way that allows research astronomers to learn the qualities of celestial objects with state-of-the-art accuracy. The instrument is named for the father of Leonard Goodman, whose family contributed early and generously to SOAR. In addition, the Abraham Goodman Laboratory for Astronomical Instrumentation located on the UNC campus will develop new technology and new instrumentation for SOAR.

Also located at UNC is the Henry Cox Remote Observing Center within the Morehead Observatory, where faculty and students may regularly observe with SOAR and other telescopes without leaving campus. SOAR’s state-of-the-art networking capabilities and computer control systems will allow UNC researchers to tailor their observing for just the right conditions.

The astronomers will then be notified to log onto computers in Chapel Hill that control their instruments and, finally, download the data and images obtained in real time.

UNC has raised $7.8 million in federal appropriations and secured an additional $11.7 million in grants and private gifts. About $8.2 million of this total has been spent on the construction, and a significant portion of the remaining funds is being spent to build the Goodman Spectrograph.

One key component of SOAR that motivated UNC physics and astronomy faculty to persevere in their quest, said Carney, was the ability to have relatively unfettered access to the telescope.

National facilities have a protocol where researchers compete for time both on spaceborne or radio astronomy with their peers. After writing a proposal for research they will be doing six months later, researchers are scheduled for viewing time (if the proposal is successful). However, if weather conditions prevent observation, the researchers must go through the same process to reschedule time – sometimes a year in advance, so students may be particularly at risk.

Having guaranteed observing time is a huge benefit for students, said Carney.

Christiansen added: "With SOAR, we will control a certain fraction of the telescope’s time. If we get clouded out, we can control that and make up the time the next night."

Another major development will allow even more unfettered access to the universe: UNC is a partner in the Southern African Large Telescope, billed as the largest single telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. SALT, as the telescope is known, is to come online at the end of the year.

"We are a small partner in SALT, with the ambition to be a larger partner," said Carney. "If we can increase our partnership, I don’t think any university in the United States will have comparable access to the Southern Hemisphere."

Despite state-of-the-art remote observing opportunities, Christiansen added, there is something about being in the foothills of a major mountain range and watching the center of the Milky Way galaxy pass overhead in a dark, smog-free sky.

"Our expectation is that travel to Chile will be a regular feature of our students’ experience," he said. "It’s a very emotional experience to go to a high mountain like this, right under the stars in a magnificent observatory. There’s something wonderful about standing up in the stars, and we want our students to know this science is exciting emotionally, as well as intellectually."

Carney likened the quest his department began almost 20 years ago as the efforts of a team ascending a mountain. He commended faculty members in his department who in 1996 voted overwhelmingly in support of sacrificing faculty lines and equipment if that were necessary to make SOAR a reality.

"In the beginning, the mountain in front of us didn’t look too challenging. But it has taken us a very long time and a number of project near-death experiences, plus a lot of help from our teammates, to climb all the way to the top.

"Now, at the time of dedication, we’ll be on that summit, standing beside the SOAR telescope and feeling like we’re on top of the world."

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Note: A full-color fact sheet detailing the specifications and capabilities of SOAR is available at this link: 
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/obj/soar/soar.pdf 

Photo URLs and captions:

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Professors Wayne Christiansen, left, and Bruce Carney display the model for the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope that has become reality with completion of construction in Chile’s Andes Mountains. An image of the recently completed telescope serves as a backdrop in this view.
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/obj/soar/image1.jpg

An image of the new Southern Astrophysical Research telescope, located on Cerro Pachon, Chile, contrasts with a model of a project that University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientists have dreamed about for 18 years. UNC is a member of an international consortium that recently completed the $32 million project.
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/obj/soar/image2.jpg

An exterior view of the Southern Astrophysical Research telescope located in Chile’s Andes Mountains. The $32 million project has produced a 4-meter telescope designed to produce the best-quality images of any observatory in its class in the world.
http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/obj/soar/soarex.jpg

News Services contacts: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415, 218-2380 or deborah_saine@unc.edu; or Karen Moon, (919) 962-8585, 218-2467 or kmoon@email.unc.edu