Really cool future astronomy

�Located 9,200 feet above sea level, atop the Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope cannot match the incredibly sharp vision of the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits above Earth�s blurring atmosphere. And, at a modest 2.5 meters (8 feet) across, the Sloan telescope�s main mirror cannot see the incredibly dim objects that the 10-meter (33-foot) Keck telescopes in Hawaii can. What the Sloan telescope does have in spades is a voracious appetite for sky�an appetite that is producing some of the most amazing discoveries in astronomy.

�With its giant set of light-sensitive imaging sensors, the Sloan telescope has a field of view so wide it can image 36 full moons� worth of sky at once (Hubble, in contrast, is limited to a view less than one-tenth of a moon across). Night after night it scans vast swaths of the heavens and downloads its observations into a 73-terabyte (and growing) digital database that covers almost half the night sky as seen from Apache Point. Swept up in the Sloan�s relentless gaze are stars, galaxies, supernovas, nebulas, and more�over 350 million celestial objects in total�adding up to the most complete census of the universe ever conducted.�

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/mar/06-world.s-hardest-working-telescope

Can you imagine how cool it would be to have an advanced version of this telescope sweeping the skies while in Earth orbit, like the Hubble. Even better, if the aperture was much MUCH larger. Even better than that, built out of nanobots and run by AI software. Oooooooo!

All the things we could know. All the places we could see.

cool & scary tech

I wonder if it’s defeated by sunglasses?