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The first astronomers had a limited toolkit: their eyes. They could only observe those stars, planets and celestial events bright enough to pick up unassisted. But today's astronomers use increasingly sensitive and sophisticated instruments to view and track a bevy of cosmic wonders, including objects and events that were too dim or distant for their sky-gazing forebears.
On Nov. 14, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), the latest sensitive tool for astrophysical observations in the Northern Hemisphere, has seen "first light" and taken its first detailed image of the night sky. When fully operational in 2018, the ZTF will scan almost the entire northern sky every night. The goal is to use these nightly images to identify "transient" objects that vary between observations -- identifying events ranging from supernovae millions of light-years away to near-Earth asteroids.Image credit: Caltech Optical Observatories
