Uploaded June 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
On 26 October work began on the construction of the new PRIME telescope building at Sutherland. PRIME (PRime focus Infrared Microlensing Experiment) is a 1.8 m telescope, built in Japan, which will have a wide field prime focus infrared camera covering 1.25 degrees in diameter a field of view 6 times size of the Moon. This massive camera is utilizing flight spares of the infrared arrays being used in the NASA Roman Space Telescope (formerly known as WFIRST and renamed in honour of Nancy Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer), which is the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope, but has a 100 times larger field of view and is due to be launched in the mid 2020s. Apart from the camera, there will also be a second instrument, namely a high resolution fibre fed spectrograph, similar in some aspects to SALT’s High Resolution Spectrograph, but working in the infrared.
On 26 October work began on the construction of the new PRIME telescope building at Sutherland. PRIME (PRime focus Infrared Microlensing Experiment) is a 1.8 m telescope, built in Japan, which will have a wide field prime focus infrared camera covering 1.25 degrees in diameter a field of view 6 times size of the Moon. This massive camera is utilizing flight spares of the infrared arrays being used in the NASA Roman Space Telescope (formerly known as WFIRST and renamed in honour of Nancy Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer), which is the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope, but has a 100 times larger field of view and is due to be launched in the mid 2020s. Apart from the camera, there will also be a second instrument, namely a high resolution fibre fed spectrograph, similar in some aspects to SALT’s High Resolution Spectrograph, but working in the infrared.
