Siding Spring Survey
Siding Spring Survey (SSS) is an Australian project for the systematic search for comets and asteroids - especially near-earth objects - in the southern sky . The search program uses the 0.5-m Uppsala Schmidt telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales . The project is the southern counterpart of the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) of the northern sky, which takes place in the Santa Catalina Mountains , on Mount Bigelow near Tucson (Arizona). SSS is jointly operated by the University of Arizona and the Australian National University . The entire project is financed by NASA .
Near-Earth objects (engl. Near-Earth object , NEO), also orbit cruisers are asteroids , comets and large meteoroids , which in their circulation around the sun , the earth's orbit intersect and therefore pose a certain risk of collision. In order to be able to estimate them, the exact path of such objects is necessary.
SSS (IAU Observatory Code E12) is located at the Siding Spring Observatory (IAU Observatory Code 413) about 400 km northwest of Sydney .