SAO [L1 ] is a "research institute" of the Smithsonian Institution [L2 ] headquartered in Cambridge, MA, where it is joined with the Harvard College Observatory (HCO [L3 ]) to form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA [L4 ]). More than 300 scientists at the CfA are engaged in a broad program of research in astronomy, astrophysics, earth and space sciences, and science education.
The first 3 f5 facility instrumentations at the new 6.5 meter MMT has been built by SAO. They made thier first light engineering run at the telescope in the fall of 2003. They run on tcl/tk. Here are some first light images taken by the worlds largest astronomical CCD camera [L6 ]