The Gemini Telescopes
The Gemini project is a multi-national partnership of seven countries that has resulted in two identical 8.1 metre telescopes - one on Hawaii's Mauna Kea mountain (Gemini North) and the other on central Chile's Cerro Pachon mountain (Gemini South). As well as the United Kingdom, the others partners in the project are the United States, Canada, Chile, Australia, Brazil and Argentina. Gemini North began taking observations in February 1999 after 10 years of planning.
 Gemini Telescope |
Some facts about the telescope:
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This long exposure clearly demonstrates the rotation of the Earth around the South Celestial Pole.
Over time the stars will appear to trace out circles around the imaginary rotation axis of our
planet. Only stars on that axis point will appear to stand still - such as the North or Pole Star
in the northern hemisphere.
Whilst we would find it hard to notice any rotation or circling of stars in the night sky, over the 45 minutes it took to take this picture, the rotation is very obvious. Image © Gemini Observatory |
 Star trails at Gemini Telescope |
 NGC 6946 - The Fireworks Galaxy |
The image quality on this large telescope is so good that it can capture the finer
detail within distant galaxies - such as this image of the NGC 6946 spiral galaxy,
otherwise known as the Fireworks Galaxy beacuse of all the hot, red star
forming regions that can be seen in the galaxy's spiral arms.
Image © Gemini Observatory/Travis Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage |
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The image here shows great clouds of gas and dust which are being used as material
in the construction of new stars. Eventually the gas and dust will all be used
up, to reveal a cluster of new-born stars. In the meantime however, we are able to
see some amazing cloud shapes and colours.
Image © Gemini Observatory/University of Florida/Nidia Morrell/UNLP-CONICET |
 NGC 6357 - A star forming region |
