Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Enters Construction Phase
Image Credit: R. Lafever, J. Moustakas/DESI Collaboration, P. Marenfeld/NOAO/AURA/NSF & E. Acosta/LSST/AURA/NSF
The 3-D spectroscopic sky-mapping project, DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument), has received formal approval from the US Department of Energy to begin construction. Installation at the Kitt Peak Mayall telescope will begin in 2017. Designed to measure the role of dark energy in the expansion history of the Universe, DESI will measure the redshifts of more than 30 million galaxies and quasars and create a map of the Universe out to a distance of 10 billion light years.
Read more in the LBL Press Release.
Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), part of the National
Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), supports the most diverse
collection of astronomical observatories on Earth for nighttime
optical and infrared astronomy and daytime study of the Sun. Sharing the
mountaintop site
with the National Solar Observatory, KPNO, founded in 1958, operates
three major nighttime telescopes and hosts the facilities of consortia
which operate 22 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes.
(See the Tenant Observatories list.)
Kitt Peak is located 56 miles southwest of Tucson, AZ, in the Schuk Toak
District on the Tohono O'odham Nation and has a Visitor Center open daily
to the public.
If you need to contact someone at NOAO but are uncertain of that person's email
address, simply send email to "first_inital_last_name_at_noao.edu", i.e.,
bsmith_at_noao.edu or jdoe_at_noao.edu. A general
purpose email account has been set up to answer any questions you have about
observing at Kitt Peak and don't know who to ask. Any and all questions you have can be e-mailed to this address: kpno_at_noao.edu and it will be forwarded to the appropriate person.
