Tek-Bull

Omega Cam takes 268 Megapixel Photos of our galaxy

The image above is the 1,700 pound sensor that gives the wide angle eye to the (VST) the VLT Survey Telescope, it works the exact same way as the digital cameras in your phone. The only difference between the two, is that the one for the Omega Camera is a lot bigger. The sensor  has 32 individual CCD sensors and all together, they can take a 268 megapixel image from outer space.

Here is how one of the images looks like:

The picture to the side is a picture of M17, if you think this image looks amazing, wait until you see the high resolution picture found here – Astro-Wise – once you see that, you’ll be able to see exactly why this new Sensor is such a big deal.

The Omega Camera is placed in the middle of the VLT and it acts as the “catch all” sensor for all the telescopes in the VLT.

The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) program is a cooperation between the Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte (OAC) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) that began in 1997.

The camera that was in place before the Omega Cam had a damaged mirror that was destroyed in an accident that occurred during its transport from Europe to the Paranal Observatory.

So I guess we can start to get ready for  a large number of pictures from space flooding the internet in the next couple of weeks.

Astro-Wise, via PetaPixel