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Noao Annual Report Fy07 AURA/NOAO ANNUAL REPORT FY 2007 Submitted to the National Science Foundation September 30, 2007 Revised as Final and Submitted January 30, 2008 Emission nebula NGC6334 (Cat’s Paw Nebula): star-forming region in the constellation Scorpius. This 2007 image was taken using the Mosaic-2 imager on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter- American Observatory. Intervening dust in the plane of the Milky Way galaxy reddens the colors of the nebula. Image credit: T.A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage, T. Abbott and NOAO/AURA/NSF NATIONAL OPTICAL ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY NOAO ANNUAL REPORT FY 2007 Submitted to the National Science Foundation September 30, 2007 Revised as Final and Submitted January 30, 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................. 1 1 SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES AND FINDINGS ..................................................................................... 2 1.1 NOAO Gemini Science Center .............................................................................. 2 GNIRS Infrared Spectroscopy and the Origins of the Peculiar Hydrogen-Deficient Stars...................... 2 Supermassive Black Hole Growth and Chemical Enrichment in the Early Universe.............................. 4 1.2 Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO)................................................ 5 The Nearest Stars........................................................................................................................................ 5 Electric Stars............................................................................................................................................... 6 A New Milky Way Satellite....................................................................................................................... 6 The Nature of the Universe ........................................................................................................................ 7 1.3 Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO)............................................................... 7 Observing Programs Continue Broad Scientific and Educational Impact................................................ 7 2 THE GROUND-BASED O/IR OBSERVING SYSTEM ..................................................................... 9 2.1 The Gemini Telescopes—NOAO Gemini Science Center .................................... 9 Support of U.S. Gemini Users and Proposers............................................................................................ 9 Providing U.S. Scientific Input to Gemini............................................................................................... 10 U.S. Gemini Instrumentation Program .................................................................................................... 10 Gemini 2007 Science Meeting................................................................................................................. 11 2.2 CTIO Telescopes.................................................................................................. 11 Blanco 4-m Telescope.............................................................................................................................. 11 Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope ............................................................................ 12 SMARTS Consortium and Other Small Telescopes............................................................................... 12 Blanco Instrumentation ............................................................................................................................ 13 SOAR Instrumentation............................................................................................................................. 13 2.3 KPNO Telescopes ................................................................................................ 14 WIYN 3.5-m............................................................................................................................................. 14 Mayall 4-m................................................................................................................................................ 14 2.1-m......................................................................................................................................................... 15 Relations with the Tohono O’odham Nation........................................................................................... 15 VERITAS Project..................................................................................................................................... 16 Operations and Instrumentation Partnerships .......................................................................................... 16 Deferred Maintenance and Modernization .............................................................................................. 16 Site Protection........................................................................................................................................... 17 2.4 Community Access to the Independent Observatories ........................................ 17 MMT Observatory and the Hobby-Eberly Telescope............................................................................. 17 Keck and Magellan Telescopes................................................................................................................ 18 i NOAO ANNUAL REPORT FY 2007 2.5 Joint NOAO-NASA Time Allocation ................................................................... 18 2.6 NOAO Survey Programs...................................................................................... 18 2.7 NOAO Data Products Program............................................................................ 18 Data Management System........................................................................................................................19 Pipelines ....................................................................................................................................................19 NEWFIRM support ..................................................................................................................................19 Operations .................................................................................................................................................20 Science Support Software.........................................................................................................................20 3 NOAO MAJOR INSTRUMENTATION PROGRAM.......................................................................21 3.1 NOAO Instruments .............................................................................................. 21 NOAO Extremely Wide-Field IR Imager (NEWFIRM).........................................................................21 SOAR Adaptive Optics Module (SAM)..................................................................................................23 MONSOON Detector Controller .............................................................................................................24 4 NOAO AND THE DECADAL SURVEY PROJECTS.......................................................................25 4.1 Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope Program Office (GSMTPO) ....................... 25 Staffing......................................................................................................................................................25 Web Site....................................................................................................................................................25 GSMT Science Working Group (SWG)..................................................................................................25 ELT Development Support: AURA Proposal to NSF.............................................................................26 ELT Development Support: TMT Design and Development.................................................................27 ELT Site Selection: Site Testing for the Thirty Meter Telescope ...........................................................27 FY07 Technical Papers by GSMTPO Staff.............................................................................................27 4.2 Large-Aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) ........................................... 28 Telescope and Site ....................................................................................................................................28 Training and Development.......................................................................................................................28 Science Collaborations .............................................................................................................................29 LSST D&D Education and Public Outreach (EPO) Program.................................................................29 4.3 National Virtual Observatory (NVO)................................................................... 29 4.4 Telescope System Instrumentation Program (TSIP)............................................ 30 4.5 Adaptive Optics Development Program (AODP)................................................ 31 UC Berkeley..............................................................................................................................................31 CARA........................................................................................................................................................32
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