NGC 6070: First Light for Sloan

Explanation: The graceful spiral galaxy NGC 6070, 100 million light-years distant in the constellation Serpens , is helping astronomers celebrate “First Light” (the first test sky images ) for an exciting new telescope built to perform the ambitious Sloan Digital Sky Survey . The dedicated survey instrument , located at Apache Point Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico, USA, will map 1/4 of the entire sky in unprecedented detail with sophisticated digital imaging and data processing technologies. Telescopic observations tend to offer sensitive views of only very small pieces of the universe . Interpreting the results is a bit like watching a baseball game through a a drinking straw and trying to figure out what's going on! But scanning the sky over five years of planned operation, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey will build up a multi-color, 3-dimensional view of a large portion of the visible universe. At the turn of the millennium , this “big picture” will give humanity a critical new and detailed field guide to the cosmos .