Fifth anniversary of First Light
1400 BST 1 August 2008July 21st 2008 saw the fifth anniversary of "first light" at the LT, when on-site telescope assembly was complete and the first ever LT image of a celestial object was obtained. Since that time, the LT has taken half a million images as part of 183 separate research proposals led by 82 separate principal investigators, administered through five telescope allocation committees.
Some of the highlights over that time include:
- full LT roboticization and unsupervised running in 2004
- five instruments commissioned and in routine robotic operation
- imaging Near-Earth Asteroid 2004FH, at the time the closest asteroid flyby of the Earth
- LT's first Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) optical transient (OT) observation
- GRB OT observed 3 minutes after burst
- Queen's Anniversary Prize won
- LT data help discover YORP effect on asteroid
- RINGO polarimeter detects very low polarisation in GRB
- LT helps study of double supernova
- RINGO wins Times Higher Education Supplement award
- LT contributes towards Jupiter-Saturn analogue discovery
These news items and more are available in the News Archive.