Collaborative Research: The Condor Array Telescope Survey of the Sky

NSF Award Search · 01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $734,468 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

A research collaboration between the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the American Museum of Natural History has been operating the Condor Array Telescope at a very dark astronomical site in the southwest corner of New Mexico since 2021. With renewed NSF support, the team will add two new telescopes to the instrument, significantly enhancing its capabilities. They will continue to operate Condor to obtain, analyze, and interpret a variety of observations spanning the entire northern sky, focusing on several important science topics to which the instruments can make particularly significant contributions. In addition, the team will produce a one-hour-long video documentary featuring Condor New Mexico and the rich cultural history of the North American civilizations in the region. This film will explore the interaction between scientific inquiry and cultural history, with a particular emphasis on the Apache people, whose ancestors have lived in the region for centuries. The team will also incorporate their survey images into a Hayden Planetarium space show tentatively titled “Multi-Messenger Astrophysics.” Condor combines six off-the-shelf refracting telescopes with six off-the-shelf CMOS cameras. It is optimized for low-surface-brightness sensitivity, wide field of view, and rapid time resolution. The instruments will detect and study large portions of the extremely faint and extremely distant filaments of the “cosmic web” of intergalactic gas that stretches

Key facts

NSF award ID
2510407
Awardee
SUNY at Stony Brook (NY)
SAM.gov UEI
M746VC6XMNH9
PI
Kenneth M Lanzetta
Primary program
01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY
Estimated total
$734,468
Funds obligated
$734,468
Transaction type
Standard Grant
Period
09/01/2025 → 08/31/2028