The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT)
is one of the oldest facilities on the summit
of Mauna-Kea. Once considered a large telescope
with its 3.6-meter mirror, CFHT looks small
in this time of 8 to 10 meter telescopes.
However, a new instrument, MegaPrime, comes
into operation this month after 6 years of
development and a few months of engineering
on the sky, placing CFHT once more on the
forefront of optical astronomy in spite of
its relatively small mirror size. The first
astronomical images from MegaPrime are being
released today to the general public.
The result of a fruitful collaboration
between CFHT and institutes in France and
Canada, MegaPrime is a completely new
structure installed on top of the telescope,
equipped with specially designed optics and
a unique made-in-France digital camera of
340 megapixels called MegaCam.
With a field of view of 1 degree by 1 degree,
the size of four Full Moons, MegaPrime will allow
the astronomers from France, Canada and Hawaii
to observe the Earth’s neighborhood or remote
galaxies using digital images of an unprecedented
resolution for such a field of view. It will be
possible to look for small objects moving around
planets, or the outskirts of the solar system;
astronomers will be able to watch the explosions
of dying stars in remote galaxies, study the
ripples of space due to unseen matter, or witness
new and mysterious phenomena yet to be discovered.
Scientific observations have already begun,
including the CFHT Legacy Survey, a program of
500 nights spread over 5 years, to be shared by
all Canadian and French astronomers.
Opening a new era in astronomical wide-field
imaging, MegaPrime will benefit the worldwide
astronomical community, as the data will be
subsequently released in the CFHT archives.
