SkyMapper finds fastest-growing black hole in Universe | 15 May 2018

The Australian National University's SkyMapper telescope has discovered the fastest-growing black hole known to exist in the Universe.

"This black hole is growing so rapidly that it's shining thousands of times more brightly than an entire galaxy, due to all of the gases it sucks in daily that cause lots of friction and heat," said Dr Christian Wolf from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

"If we had this monster sitting at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, it would appear 10 times brighter than a full moon. It would appear as an incredibly bright pin-point ...

SkyMapper creates best map of the southern sky | 23 Apr 2018

This article was originally published by ANU News as "ANU astronomers create best map of the southern sky".

Astronomers at ANU have created the most comprehensive map of the southern sky that can be viewed online by anyone around the world.

The map includes about 70,000 individual images, capturing nearly 300 million stars and galaxies.

Lead researcher Dr Christian Wolf from ANU said the map was created using SkyMapper, a 1.3-metre telescope at the ANU Siding Spring Observatory that is creating a full record of the southern sky for astronomers internationally.

"The map of the southern ...

Web-based ASVO access currently offline (Rectified) | 20 Apr 2018

Access to the SkyMapper node of the ASVO through this website is currently offline. You can continue to query SkyMapper DR1 through alternative VO Tools like TOPCAT and Aladin (see the How To Access page).

We hope to restore website functionality soon, and we apologise for any inconvenience.

Maintenance Period - 3 Apr 2018 (Complete) | 21 Mar 2018

On Tuesday, 3 April 2018, the SkyMapper node of the ASVO will be offline during quarterly maintenance at the National Computational Infrastructure. The query tools (image, catalogue, and cone-search) will be down from 8am-6pm (AEST).

SkyMapper Data Release 1.1 available worldwide | 14 Dec 2017

The SkyMapper team are pleased to announce that Data Release 1 has been upgraded to Data Release 1.1. DR1.1 offers a significant improvement in the homogeneity of photometric calibration across the Southern sky, with the trade-off of a slightly-reduced sky coverage. Data queries against our cone search, image cutout and TAP services will now return DR1.1 data only. DR1.0 data are still available through out TAP service - look for table names containing dr1p0.

DR1.1 has been released to the worldwide public. Astronomers all over the world are now able to download SkyMapper data via this ...