Discovery Channel Telescope

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The Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT) is a 4.2-meter telescope being built for Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona and will be the fifth largest telescope in the continental United States once completed in 2009. The DCT is currently under construction at a dark sky site on the Coconino National Forest near Happy Jack, Arizona. Happy Jack is located at an elevation of 7,760 feet and is approximately 45 miles SSE of Flagstaff. The project is a partnership with Discovery Communications and Lowell Observatory. In its initial implementation, the telescope will cost approximately $40 million. In subsequent phases, the DCT will be equipped with wide-field imaging capability and for high-resolution spectroscopy. The telescope will significantly augment Lowell Observatory’s observational capability and enable pioneering studies in a number of important research areas.

1 Telescope
2 Construction
3 Research
4 Resources
5 External links

[edit] Telescope

The DCT is designed to support a variety of optical configurations. The phase one configuration will be ideal for high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy both at visible and the near-infrared wavelengths. Once the phase two prime focus camera is completed, the telescope will be able to image a circular portion of the sky having a diameter equivalent to four full moons placed edge to edge. Accordingly, the DCT will feature exceptional ability to perform deep imaging surveys of the night sky, while retaining the ability to be switched to the alternate Ritchey-Chrétien mode, allowing it, unlike pure survey telescopes, to be highly effective during the bright phases of the moon.

[edit] Construction

Lowell Observatory and Discovery Communications formed a partnership to build the Discovery Channel Telescope in February 2003. A special use permit for construction and operation of the telescope at the Happy Jack site was received from the United States Forest Service in November 2004 and improvement of an existing road to the site commenced immediately. The primary mirror blank was completed by Corning in late 2005. Construction of the 85-foot tall, 62-foot diameter telescope enclosure and an auxiliary support building began in mid-September 2005. Final figuring and polishing of the mirror, which weighs about 6,700 lbs, will be carries out by the University of Arizona’s College of Optical Sciences. This process will take about three years. The telescope is scheduled to see first light in 2009, and become fully operational in 2010.

[edit] Research

The Discovery Channel Telescope will be applied to a wide variety of research topics spanning the gamut of modern astrophysics and planetary science. Planned projects include a search for near-Earth asteroids, an extended survey of the Kuiper Belt beyond the orbit of Neptune, and searches extrasolar planets. The telescope will also be used for investigations of stellar nurseries in the Milky Way galaxy and other galaxies to study the aging processes of stars like the Sun. The DCT will also be used for investigations of binary star systems and circumstellar dust disks from which planets are believed to sometimes form, and to improve the understanding of the processes which govern the rates at which stars spin.

Project Leaders include Robert Millis, Director, Lowell Observatory; Byron Smith, Project Manager; Tom Bida, Project Scientist, and Edward Dunham, Instrument Scientist