The opinion published on Nature magazine on september,2004 that Dome C is the best site for astronomy on Earth at present was expressed by Australia site selection specialist who forecast Dome A which sits 4,093 metres above sea level and be the highest point on icecap of south pole could be an even more promising site.

  On January,2005,China scientific expedition to the Antarctica succeeded in the world for the first time in climbing up to Dome A.It  provides a rare and much-sought chance for china to initiate astronomical observation of Antarctic.

  On 2006,Chinese astronomers and astronomical instrument specialists put forward joint proposal to research and manufacture Antaarctic telescope for site selection,which was supported by Bureau of Basic Science,CAS and Chinese astronomical union.

  On 10th,October,2007,Chinese Small Telescope Array(CSTAR)has been built and accepted in NIAOT.CSTAR is an arrary of four Schmidt telescope with aperture of 14.5cm,equipped with 1Kx1K CCD each,whitelight,g,r,i filters.It is jointly developed by by several subordinates of National Astronomical Observatory,including its headquarters,Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology and Purple Mountain Observatory.

　On 16th,October,2007,CSTAR was transported to the China Antarctic Astronomy Center.At the end of this month,China's 24th Antarctic expedition will start its trip while CSTAR will be delivered to Antarctic by 'XueLong'.