The Siding Spring Survey (SSS) was a
near-Earth object search program that used the 0.5-metre
Uppsala Southern Schmidt Telescope
The Uppsala Schmidt Telescope is a Schmidt telescope located in Australia. It was moved to Siding Spring Observatory from Mount Stromlo Observatory in 1982. The instrument has been used to study the galaxy, asteroids and comets. It was last ded ...
at
Siding Spring Observatory
Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a coll ...
,
New South Wales,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. It was the southern hemisphere counterpart of the
Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) located in the
Santa Catalina Mountains on
Mount Bigelow, near
Tucson,
Arizona,
USA. The survey was the only professional search for dangerous asteroids being made in the
Southern Hemisphere.
SSS was jointly operated by the
University of Arizona and the
Australian National University, with funding from
NASA. SSS (IAU observatory code E12) was located at Siding Spring Observatory (IAU observatory code 413) at , approximately north-west of
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
at an altitude of about .
Images of 30 seconds' exposure time were collected using a 4×4K
charge-coupled device at intervals and then compared with software.
The survey ended in July 2013 after funding was discontinued.
Discoveries
Since 2004 the survey has discovered 400 potentially hazardous objects with a diameter greater than 100 m.
In early January 2013,
Robert H. McNaught discovered a new comet named
C/2013 A1 using data collected while searching for asteroids.
List of discovered minor planets
See also
*
*
List of near-Earth object observation projects
References
External links
Siding Spring Survey
{{Portal bar, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System
2004 establishments in Australia
2013 disestablishments in Australia
Astronomical surveys
Asteroid surveys
*
Siding Spring Observatory
University of Arizona