VISTA Camera takes to the air (Forwarded)

Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
Swindon, U.K.

Contacts:

Julia Maddock
PPARC Press Officer
Tel: 01793 442 094

Kim Ward
VISTA Camera Manager (Pictured in image 07EC1039.jpg)
Tel: 01235 445237

Natalie Bealing MCIPR
Press and PR Manager
CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Tel: 01235 445484

Jim Emerson
VISTA Principal Investigator
Tel: 01794 127 1548

Dr Henri Boffin
ESO Press Officer
Tel: +49 89 3200 6222

Sian Halkyard
QMUL Press Officer
Queen Mary University of London
Tel: 0207 882 7454

Eleanor Gilchrist
Public Relations Officer
UK Astronomy Technology Centre
Tel: 0131 668 8397

17 January 2007

VISTA Camera takes to the air

The world's biggest infrared camera for Europe's newest telescope left the
UK today (17th January 2007) for its flight to Santiago in Chile. The
infrared camera will sit at the focal point of VISTA -- a UK provided
survey telescope being constructed in Chile for ESO, the Organisation for
Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere. VISTA will be able to
map the infrared sky faster than any previous telescope, studying areas of
the Universe that are hard to see in the optical region of the spectrum
due to either (or all of) their cool temperature, surrounding dust or
their high redshift.

The 2.9 tonne VISTA camera has been designed and built by a consortium
including CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, the UK
Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) in Edinburgh and the University of
Durham. Mr Kim Ward, the Camera Manager, oversaw the technical challenges:
"The inside of the camera is under vacuum and it operates at a temperature
of -200 degrees, so in many ways it has been like designing an instrument
for use in space, but with the additional constraint of having to survive
an earthquake environment. VISTA has a much larger number of infrared
sensitive detectors than previous infrared instruments -- totalling 67
million pixels, and its wide field of view requires it to have the largest
ever window of any infrared camera."

Only one airline offers regular cargo flights to Chile, so the camera will
be loaded into a container and taken by ferry to mainland Europe, so that
it can catch its Boeing 747 flight from Luxemburg on the 22nd January. The
container is so large that it will only just fit in this massive plane.
Once it touches down in Santiago, the container will be driven 1300 km to
the mountain top where VISTA is being assembled at ESO's Cerro Paranal
Observatory.

VISTA is due to start scientific operations in the last quarter of 2007.
Professor Jim Emerson of Queen Mary, University London is VISTA's
Principal Investigator: "VISTA will be able to take good quality images of
areas of sky each about 3 times as great as the full moon. This means it
can survey quickly which is its niche. The camera is crucial to carrying
out VISTA's surveys which will provide statistical samples of objects and
at the same time locate and characterise rare and variable objects, and
perhaps most tantalisingly make discoveries of the as-yet unknown."

VISTA will survey large areas of the southern sky at near infrared
wavelengths (2 to 4 times the wavelength of visible light) to study
objects that are not seen easily in optical light either because they are
too cool to (such as brown dwarfs), or are surrounded by interstellar dust
which infrared light penetrates much better than optical, or whose optical
light is redshifted into the near infrared by the expansion of the
Universe. Amongst other things VISTA's surveys will help our understanding
of the nature and distribution and origin of known types of stars and
galaxies, map the 3-D structure of our galaxy, and help determine the
relation between the 3-D structure of the universe and the mysterious
'dark energy' and dark matter'. Samples of objects will be followed up in
detail with further observations by other telescopes and instruments such
as the nearby Very Large Telescope (VLT).

Professor Richard Wade, Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
Director and President of ESO Council said, "The unique Paranal site, the
large 4-m telescope aperture, the wide field, and the high efficiency of
the detectors will make VISTA the world's outstanding ground based near-IR
survey instrument."

Catherine Cesarsky, ESO's Director General commented, "VISTA is an eagerly
awaited addition to ESO's suite of telescopes. Wide area surveys such as
those which VISTA will undertake can drive discoveries across the field of
astronomy."

VISTA is a £36 million project, funded by grants from the DTI's Joint
Infrastructure Fund and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research
Council (PPARC) to Queen Mary, University of London, the lead institute of
the VISTA Consortium. VISTA forms part of the UK's subscription to ESO and
will be an ESO telescope. VISTA is project managed by PPARC's UK Astronomy
Technology Centre.

Notes for Editors:

Images

Images of the VISTA telescope, enclosure and infrared camera are available
at
http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/Vista_images.asp

Images of the camera being transported, Credit CCLRC.

* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/07EC1029.jpg (629KB)
* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/07EC1032.jpg (2.3MB)
* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/07EC1035.jpg (735KB)
* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/07EC1037.jpg (634KB)
* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/07EC1039.jpg (439KB)
* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/07EC1042.jpg (465KB)
* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/07EC1045.jpg (436KB)
* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/07EC1048.jpg (688KB)
* http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Nw/07EC1050.jpg (619KB)

VISTA [http://www.vista.ac.uk/]

VISTA Consortium: The VISTA Consortium Lead Institute is Queen Mary
University of London. The 18 UK University members of the VISTA Consortium
a Queen Mary, University of London, Queen's University of Belfast, The
University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge, Cardiff University,
University of Central Lancashire, University of Durham, The University of
Edinburgh, University of Hertfordshire, Keele University, Leicester
University, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Nottingham,
University of Oxford, University of St Andrews, University of Southampton,
University of Sussex, University College London.

CCLRC [http://www.cclrc.ac.uk/]

The Council for the Central Laboratory for the Research Council is one of
eight UK research councils and is one of Europe's largest
multidisciplinary research organisation supporting scientists and
engineers across the world. It operates world-class large scale research
facilities, provides strategic advice to the government on their
development and manages international research projects in support of a
broad cross-section of the UK research community.

UKATC [http://www.roe.ac.uk/ukatc/]

The UK Astronomy Technology Centre is located at the Royal Observatory,
Edinburgh (ROE). It is a scientific site belonging to PPARC. The mission
of the UK ATC is to support the mission and strategic aims of PPARC and to
help keep the UK at the forefront of world astronomy by providing a UK
focus for the design, production and promotion of state of the art
astronomical technology.

QMUL [http://www.qmul.ac.uk/]

Queen Mary is one of the leading colleges in the federal University of
London, with over 11,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and an
academic and support staff of around 2,600. Queen Mary is a research
university, with over 80 per cent of research staff working in departments
where research is of international or national excellence (RAE 2001). It
has a strong international reputation, with around 20 per cent of students
coming from over 100 countries. The College has 21 academic departments
and institutes organised into three sectors: Science and Engineering;
Humanities, Social Sciences and Laws; and the School of Medicine and
Dentistry.
It has an annual turnover of £200 million, research income worth £43
million, and it generates employment and output worth nearly £400 million
to the UK economy each year. Queen Mary's roots lie in four historic
colleges: Queen Mary College, Westfield College, St Bartholomew's Hospital
Medical College and the London Hospital Medical College.

About PPARC,
http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Ap/intro.asp