AST/RO: A submillimetre-wave telescope for the South Pole

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The Antarctic submillimetre Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO), a 1.7 m offset Gregorian, is scheduled for installation at the South Pole in November 1993. It is a collaboration including the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Boston University, the University of Illinois, the University of Colorado, and the University of Cologne. Observational tests (Pajot 1990; Dragovan et al 1990) and modeling (Bally 1990) of atmospheric transparency over the Pole indicate that it is the best accessible submillimetre-wave site in the world. The immediate scientific goals are heterodyne spectroscopy of galactic molecular clouds and molecular lines in the earth’s stratosphere at wavelengths near 600 μm. Two early observational programs are a large-scale survey of the CI line at 609 μm and monitoring of the 2.8 mm O₃ line arising in the stratosphere. Under the newly-formed Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica (centred at Yerkes Observatory), AST/RO will become a general-purpose instrument for the millimetre, sub-millimetre and far-infrared.