The commissioning of APOGEE is now in full swing as the team works out the capabilities of the new spectrograph. Quite remarkably, because APOGEE is an infra-red spectrograph, it can operate perfectly well in relatively bright observing conditions compared to the more traditional optical instruments used previously by SDSS. As shown below, APOGEE can take observations of the bulge component of our Galaxy in full moon and over the lights of nearby El Paso.

Photo taken by Steve Majewski

The APOGEE team below in the SDSS telescope control room during the first light observations in May 2011.