Automated Planet Finder

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The Automated Planet Finder Telescope (APF) is a fully-automated 2.4-meter optical telescope under construction at Lick Observatory designed to search for extrasolar planets in the range of five to twenty times the mass of the Earth.

The telescope will use high-precision radial velocity measurements to measure the gravitational reflex motion of nearby stars caused by the orbiting of planets. It is capable of detecting stellar motions as small as one meter per second, comparable to a slow walking speed. The main targets will be stars within about 100 light years of the Earth.

First light was originally scheduled for 2006, but delays in the construction of the major components of the telescope have pushed this back to mid-2008 at the earliest.