Apache Point's Telescope Nears Completion

The final pieces of the Apache Point Observatory's new telescope have arrived, marking the beginning of a multiyear project to produce a three-dimensional picture of the universe.

The delivery included the optics of one spectrograph and an entire second spectrograph -- the last major instruments for the specially constructed 2.5-m telescope.

Located in Sunspot, N.M., the observatory will catalog the position and brightness of about 100 million celestial objects and the spectra for about 1 million galaxies and 100,000 quasars. The telescope is scheduled to begin scanning the sky by late April or early May.