Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument’s Lenses See First Light

Noirlab_noaoann19007a_1024

noirlab_noaoann19007a April 4th, 2019

Credit: DESI Collaboration

On April 1, the Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak emerged from hibernation—its dome reopened to the night sky, and starlight poured through the six large lenses of its powerful new research tool: the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Early next year, DESI will begin the greatest cosmic cartography experiment attempted to date, surveying 40 million galaxies and quasars out to a distance of 10 billion light years, and 10 million stars in our Galaxy. DESI's commissioning camera captured this image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, a.k.a. M51.

Provider: NOIRLab

Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noaoann19007a/

Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

View Options View Options

Download Options Download Options

Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
M51 • Whirlpool Galaxy
Noirlab_noaoann19007a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 13h 29m 53.5s
DEC = 47° 11’ 54.2”
Orientation
North is 180.5° CCW
Field of View
6.8 x 4.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Canes Venatici

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Pseudocolor KPNO-4m (Mosaic II) Optical (None) -
Noirlab_noaoann19007a_1280
×
ID
noaoann19007a
Subject Category
Subject Name
M51, Whirlpool Galaxy
Credits
DESI Collaboration
Release Date
2019-04-04T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noaoann19007a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope
Instrument
Mosaic II
Color Assignment
Pseudocolor
Band
Optical
Bandpass
None
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
202.472889682, 47.1983899217
Reference Dimension
1200.0, 799.0
Reference Pixel
600.0, 399.5
Scale
-9.47555120908e-05, 9.47555120908e-05
Rotation
180.51999999999998
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
NSF's NOIRLab
URL
https://noirlab.edu
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
950 North Cherry Ave.
City
Tucson
State/Province
AZ
Postal Code
85719
Country
USA
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
NSF's NOIRLab
Publisher ID
noirlab
Resource ID
noaoann19007a
Resource URL
http://noirlab.edu/public/media/archives/images/original/noaoann19007a.tif
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2020-06-11T21:37:24+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
×

 

Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×

There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

Providers | Sign In

NASA’s Universe of Learning materials are based upon work supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AC65A to the Space Telescope Science Institute, working in partnership with Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The award is part of NASA’s Science Activation program, which strives to further enable NASA science experts and content into the learning environment more effectively and efficiently with learners of all ages.