Heavens, it's digital

The first all-digital survey of the skies is under way at Apache Point
Observatory in New Mexico, using an enormous metre-wide camera incorporating no
fewer than 54 microchip image sensors. The camera, built by University of
Chicago graduate student Connie Rockosi, collects almost all the available light
in the sky. Conventional film cameras capture just 1 per cent. The videotaped
data—called the Sloan Digital Sky Survey—will eventually catalogue
100 million celestial objects.