The Mozi Sky Survey Telescope has officially been put into observation and released photos of the Andromeda galaxy

Today (September 17th), the Mozi Sky Survey Telescope, which has the strongest optical time domain sky survey capability in the northern hemisphere, has officially been put into observation at the Qinghai Cold Lake Astronomical Observation Base, which will bring China's time domain astronomical research capability to the international advanced level. A photo of the Andromeda galaxy taken during the trial observation phase of this telescope was released on the same day, which is currently the world's largest high-resolution image of the Andromeda galaxy in the field of view

Today (September 17th), the Mozi Sky Survey Telescope, which has the strongest optical time domain sky survey capability in the northern hemisphere, has officially been put into observation at the Qinghai Cold Lake Astronomical Observation Base, which will bring China's time domain astronomical research capability to the international advanced level. A photo of the Andromeda galaxy taken during the trial observation phase of this telescope was released on the same day, which is currently the world's largest high-resolution image of the Andromeda galaxy in the field of view.

Located in Lenghu Astronomical Observation Base in Haixi Mongolian Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, Mozi Sky Survey Telescope is a "double first-class" discipline platform construction project of University of Science and Technology of China, jointly developed by University of Science and Technology of China, Zijinshan Observatory of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, and has achieved independent innovation and important breakthroughs in a number of key technologies. The Mozi Sky Survey Telescope has a main mirror aperture of 2.5 meters and adopts internationally advanced main focus optical system design and active optical correction technology for the main mirror. It can achieve uniform high image quality and extremely low image field distortion imaging within a 3 degree field of view range. Equipped with a 765 million pixel large target area main focus camera, it has the characteristics of a large field of view, high image quality, and wide band. The Mozi Sky Survey Telescope has a large light transmission area, low stray light, high detection sensitivity, and powerful sky survey ability. It can survey the entire northern hemisphere every three nights, making it the strongest optical time domain sky survey equipment in the Northern Hemisphere.

The photo of the Andromeda galaxy released on the same day was created by the Mozi Sky Survey Telescope through a total of 150 exposures of 30 seconds each time, resulting in 150 superimposed images. This is the high-resolution image of the Andromeda galaxy with the largest field of view captured in the world, which is of great significance for subsequent astronomical research.

The telescope began development in July 2019, and construction began in May 2021 at the Qinghai Haixi Cold Lake Astronomical Observation Base. The main project construction was basically completed and debugging and observation were carried out in August 2023.

After being officially put into observation, the Mozi Sky Survey Telescope will obtain high-precision position and multi band brightness observation data, monitor moving and optically variable celestial bodies, efficiently search for and monitor astronomical dynamic events, and is expected to achieve breakthrough original results in high-energy time-domain astronomy such as gravitational wave event electromagnetic counterparts, solar system celestial surveys, research on the structure of the Milky Way and the essence of dark matter. The superposition of data from the Mozi Sky Survey Telescope will provide the deepest, high-precision, large sky area, multi-color photometry, and position catalog in the northern celestial sphere. As a passed down sky survey data, it can be used for the identification and systematic research of various celestial bodies in the universe in the coming decades. At the same time, the Mozi Sky Survey Telescope will carry out search and monitoring research on near-Earth objects in the solar system in response to the national strategy of building a strong space country, serving the needs of space safety and deep space exploration strategies.

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