Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
Kamuela, Hawaii

Contact:
Christian Veillet, 1 (808) 885 7944,

September 28, 2004

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope unveils a
stunning image of the cosmos

Twenty-five years ago, on September 28, 1979, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
(CFHT) was inaugurated on top of Mauna-Kea, a 4,200-meter high dormant volcano
on the island of Hawai'i.

From the photographic emulsion of the first light to today's 340 Mega-Pixel
digital camera, CHFT¹s instruments are cutting edge; its camera is the largest
ever built in operation on a telescope. With high-resolution or multi-object
spectroscopy, adaptive optics and polarimetry, CFHT has played an important role
for a quarter of a century in the development of astronomy, thanks to the
support of its member agencies in Canada, France and the State of Hawaii.

Once one of the large telescopes in the world, with a mirror 3.6-m in diameter
(a 'small' telescope by today's standards), CFHT continues to serve the
astronomical community with stunning images and groundbreaking discoveries, from
the small bodies of our solar system to remote galaxies; this has been possible
due to a state-of-the-art instrument complement well-suited to the relatively
modest size of its mirror and the extraordinary quality of its site.

The spectacular image released today is one of the best ground-based images ever
made combining wide field and high resolution. It is the result of tens of hours
of telescope time spent on a single 1-degree by 1-degree field for the CFHT
Legacy Survey (CFHTLS), one of CFHT's most ambitious scientific endeavors so
far. Canada and France are devoting 500 nights of telescope time to the CFHTLS
over 5 years to tackle important questions in today's astronomy.

While there are still years to go to complete the CFHTLS, this image comes as a
spectacular milestone to celebrate 25 years of excellence ... and counting!

[NOTE: Additional information is available at
http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/News/Anniversary/ ]