[Astronomers in Australia complete major sky survey] [picture] /

Title devised by cataloguer based on information from acquisition documentation.; "P81/85" and "14/4/81/26"--Inscriptions on verso.; "An aerial view of the UK Schmidt Telescope, foreground, with the Anglo-Australian Telescope in the background."--Inscriptions on verso.; Also available in an electronic version via the Internet at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn3642963. "Astronomers have completed the main part of the first major optical survey of the southern sky in an eight-year project undertaken at the Siding Spring Observatory in eastern Australia. It is a joint project between the British Science Research Council (SRC) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) based in Chile. The work in Australia was carried out by British observers and technicians using the 1.2-m (48-in) UK Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring, run by the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. More than 1000 photographic plates covering hundreds of different fields of view of the southern sky were exposed during the long survey. Of these about 600 will be used to produce a special atlas known as the ESO/SRC Atlas of the Southern Sky. The atlas is now being printed at ESO headquarters in Munich, West Germany, and the first part is being distributed to several hundred astronomical subscribers around the world."--Inscriptions on verso