This is the "Ann Plate", a photograph that was taken during the commissioning of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in 1974 as a demonstration of the capabilities of the new telescope.

The AAT was the first large telescope to be completely computer controlled, which resulted in an unprecedented level of control over the pointing of the telescope. The Ann plate demonstrated this by moving the telescope in complex patterns during a long photographic exposure of the night sky, tracing out circles, raster scan patterns, Lissajous figures and the name "Ann" in starlight. The ability to do this may sound trivial now, but it represented a big leap forward at the time and the Ann plate caused quite a stir when it was published.

So, who was Ann? The Ann in question was Ann Savage, an astronomer who was at the time a DPhil student studying quasars with the Parkes, UK Schmidt and AAT telescopes. She was at the AAT while this was going on, and allegedly suggested her own name on the basis it would be easy to programme into the telescope control system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Savage_(astronomer)

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#Astronomy #Astrodon #AngloAustralianTelescope #AAO