SCUBA-2 submillimetre camera sees first light

The 4.5-tonne SCUBA-2 (Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array) camera, unveiled today as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, will survey wavelengths invisible to optical cameras and capture unprecedented information about the formation of stars.

SCUBA-2 was built in collaboration with Canadian, U.S. and Dutch scientists. The UBC team, which also includes P&A professors Mark Halpern and Douglas Scott postdoctoral research associate Ed Chapin, software engineer Andy Gibb, electronics engineer Mandana Amiri and graduate students Todd Mackenzie and Viktoria Asboth

See UBC Press Release for further details and the astro's group site for some pictures.