The Big Eye Vol 6 No 3
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Unique Sky Survey Brings New Objects Into Focus 15 June 2009
Unique sky survey brings new objects into focus 15 June 2009 human intervention. The Palomar Transient Factory is a collaboration of scientists and engineers from institutions around the world, including the California Institute of Technology (Caltech); the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); Columbia University; Las Cumbres Observatory; the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel; and Oxford University. During the PTF process, the automated wide-angle 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory scans the skies using a 100-megapixel camera. The flood of images, more than 100 gigabytes This is the Andromeda galaxy, as seen with the new every night, is then beamed off of the mountain via PTF camera on the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the High Performance Wireless Research and Palomar Observatory. This image covers 3 square Education Network¬-a high-speed microwave data degrees of sky, more than 15 times the size of the full connection to the Internet-and then to the LBNL's moon. Credit: Nugent & Poznanski (LBNL), PTF National Energy Scientific Computing Center. collaboration There, computers analyze the data and compare it to images previously obtained at Palomar. More computers using a type of artificial intelligence software sift through the results to identify the most An innovative sky survey has begun returning interesting "transient" sources-those that vary in images that will be used to detect unprecedented brightness or position. numbers of powerful cosmic explosions-called supernovae-in distant galaxies, and variable Within minutes of a candidate transient's discovery, brightness stars in our own Milky Way. -
Edwin Powell Hubble Papers: Finding Aid
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf7b69n8rd Online items available Edwin Powell Hubble Papers: Finding Aid Processed by Ronald S. Brashear, completed December 12, 1997; machine-readable finding aid created by Xiuzhi Zhou and updated by Diann Benti in June 2017. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Manuscripts Department 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2191 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org © 1998 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Edwin Powell Hubble Papers: mssHUB 1-1098 1 Finding Aid Overview of the Collection Title: Edwin Powell Hubble Papers Dates (inclusive): 1900-1989 Collection Number: mssHUB 1-1098 Creator: Hubble, Edwin, 1889-1953. Extent: 1300 pieces, plus ephemera in 34 boxes Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts Department 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2191 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org Abstract: This collection contains the papers of Edwin P. Hubble (1889-1953), an astronomer at the Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California. as well as the diaries and biographical memoirs of his wife, Grace Burke Hubble. Language: English. Access Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services. Publication Rights The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher. Preferred Citation [Identification of item]. -
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Printer Friendly - - science news articles online technology magazine articles Printer Friendly Beyond Pluto We are only beginning to discover how vast and strange our solar system truly is By Kathy A. Svitil Illustrations by Don Foley DISCOVER Vol. 25 No. 11 | November 2004 | Astronomy & Physics As a child, Mike Brown had all the trappings of an astronomer-in-the-making, with space books, rocket drawings, and a poster of the planets on his bedroom wall. On it, Pluto was depicted as “this crazy and very eccentric planet,” he says. “It was everyone’s favorite crazy planet.” Brown still recalls the mnemonic he learned for the names of the planets: Martha visits every Monday and—a for asteroids—just stays until noon, period. “The ‘period,’ for Pluto, was always suspicious,” Brown says with a laugh. “It didn’t seem to fit. So maybe that was when I first got the idea that Pluto didn’t belong.” Nowadays Brown, a planetary astronomer at Caltech, has no doubt about Pluto’s place in the solar system: “Pluto is not a planet. There is no logical reason to call Pluto a planet.” Like a growing number of his colleagues, Brown believes Pluto is best understood as the largest known member of the Kuiper belt, a band of rocky, icy miniplanets that orbit the sun in a swath stretching from beyond Neptune to a distance of nearly 5 billion miles. “I don’t think it denigrates Pluto at all to say that it is not a planet. I think Pluto is a fascinating and interesting world, and being the largest Kuiper belt object is an honorable thing to be.” No longer is Pluto a lonely outpost in an otherwise empty frontier. -
Telescopes and Binoculars
Continuing Education Course Approved by the American Board of Opticianry Telescopes and Binoculars National Academy of Opticianry 8401 Corporate Drive #605 Landover, MD 20785 800-229-4828 phone 301-577-3880 fax www.nao.org Copyright© 2015 by the National Academy of Opticianry. All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced without permission in writing from the publisher. 2 National Academy of Opticianry PREFACE: This continuing education course was prepared under the auspices of the National Academy of Opticianry and is designed to be convenient, cost effective and practical for the Optician. The skills and knowledge required to practice the profession of Opticianry will continue to change in the future as advances in technology are applied to the eye care specialty. Higher rates of obsolescence will result in an increased tempo of change as well as knowledge to meet these changes. The National Academy of Opticianry recognizes the need to provide a Continuing Education Program for all Opticians. This course has been developed as a part of the overall program to enable Opticians to develop and improve their technical knowledge and skills in their chosen profession. The National Academy of Opticianry INSTRUCTIONS: Read and study the material. After you feel that you understand the material thoroughly take the test following the instructions given at the beginning of the test. Upon completion of the test, mail the answer sheet to the National Academy of Opticianry, 8401 Corporate Drive, Suite 605, Landover, Maryland 20785 or fax it to 301-577-3880. Be sure you complete the evaluation form on the answer sheet. -
Researchers Hunting Exoplanets with Superconducting Arrays
Cryocoolers, a Brief Overview .............................. 8 NASA Preps Four Telescope Missions .............. 37 Lake Shore Celebrates 50 Years ....................... 22 ICCRT Recap ..................................................... 38 Recovering Cold Energy and Waste Heat ............ 32 3-D Printing from Aqueous Materials .................. 40 Exoplanet Hunt with ADR-Cooled Superconducting Detector Arrays | 34 Volume 34 Number 3 Researchers Hunting Exoplanets with Superconducting Arrays The key to revealing the exoplanets tucked away around the universe may just be locked up in the advancement of Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs), an array of superconducting de- tectors made from platinum sillicide and housed in a cryostat at 100 mK. An astronomy team led by Dr. Benjamin Mazin at the University of California Santa Barbara is using MKID arrays for research on two telescopes, the Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego and the Subaru telescope located at the Maunakea Observatory on Hawaii. Mazin began work on MKIDs nearly two decades ago while working under Dr. Jonas Zmuidzinas at Caltech, who co-pioneered the detectors for cosmic microwave background astronomy with Dr. Henry LeDuc at JPL. A look inside the DARKNESS cryostat. Image: Mazin Mazin has since adapted and ad- vanced the technology for the direct im- aging of exoplanets. With direct imaging, telescopes detect light from the planet itself, recording either the self-luminous thermal infrared light that young—and still hot—planets give off, or reflected light from a star that bounces off a planet and then towards the detector. Researchers have previously relied on indirect methods to search for exo- planets, including the radial velocity technique that looks at the spectrum of a star as it’s pushed and pulled by its planetary companions; and transit pho- tometry, where a dip in the brightness of a star is detected as planets cross in front The astronomy team working with Dr. -
The JWST/Nircam Coronagraph: Mask Design and Fabrication
The JWST/NIRCam coronagraph: mask design and fabrication John E. Krista, Kunjithapatham Balasubramaniana, Charles A. Beichmana, Pierre M. Echternacha, Joseph J. Greena, Kurt M. Liewera, Richard E. Mullera, Eugene Serabyna, Stuart B. Shaklana, John T. Traugera, Daniel W. Wilsona, Scott D. Hornerb, Yalan Maob, Stephen F. Somersteinb, Gopal Vasudevanb, Douglas M. Kellyc, Marcia J. Riekec aJet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasasdena, CA, USA 91109; bLockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA 94303; cUniversity of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 85721 ABSTRACT The NIRCam instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope will provide coronagraphic imaging from λ=1-5 µm of high contrast sources such as extrasolar planets and circumstellar disks. A Lyot coronagraph with a variety of circular and wedge-shaped occulting masks and matching Lyot pupil stops will be implemented. The occulters approximate grayscale transmission profiles using halftone binary patterns comprising wavelength-sized metal dots on anti-reflection coated sapphire substrates. The mask patterns are being created in the Micro Devices Laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory using electron beam lithography. Samples of these occulters have been successfully evaluated in a coronagraphic testbed. In a separate process, the complex apertures that form the Lyot stops will be deposited onto optical wedges. The NIRCam coronagraph flight components are expected to be completed this year. Keywords: NIRCam, JWST, James Webb Space Telescope, coronagraph 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The planet/star contrast problem Observations of extrasolar planet formation (e.g. protoplanetary disks) and planetary systems are hampered by the large contrast differences between these targets and their much brighter stars. -
Spitzer to Size up Newly Found Planet
I n s i d e August 12, 2005 Volume 35 Number 16 News Briefs . 2 The story behind ‘JPL Stories’ . 3 Special Events Calendar . 2 Passings . 4 MRO launch postponed . 2 Letters, Classifieds . 4 Jet Propulsion Laborator y However, the object was so far away Spitzer that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data in January of this year. In the last seven months, to size up the scientists have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and newly its motions. “It's definitely bigger than Pluto,” said found Brown, a professor of planetary astrono- my at Caltech. Scientists can infer the size of a solar planet system object by its brightness, just as one can infer the size of a faraway light bulb if one knows its wattage. The re- Artist’s concept of the flectance of the planet is not yet known. planet catalogued as Scientists cannot yet tell how much 2003UB313 at the light from the Sun is reflected away, lonely outer fringes of but the amount of light the planet re- our solar system. Later this month, the Spitzer Space Telescope flects puts a lower limit on its size. “Even if it reflected 100 percent of the light reaching it, it would Our Sun can be seen will look toward the recently discovered planet in the outlying regions of the solar system. The observation will still be as big as Pluto,” says Brown. “I'd say it’s probably one and a in the distance. bring new information on the size of the 10th planet, which lies half times the size of Pluto, but we’re not sure yet of the final size. -
Large Telescopes and Why We Need Them Transcript
Large telescopes and why we need them Transcript Date: Wednesday, 9 May 2012 - 1:00PM Location: Museum of London 9 May 2012 Large Telescopes And Why we Need Them Professor Carolin Crawford Astronomy is a comparatively passive science, in that we can’t engage in laboratory experiments to investigate how the Universe works. To study any cosmic object outside of our Solar System, we can only work with the light it emits that happens to fall on Earth. How much we can interpret and understand about the Universe around us depends on how well we can collect and analyse that light. This talk is about the first part of that problem: how we improve the collection of light. The key problem for astronomers is that all stars, nebulae and galaxies are so very far away that they appear both very small, and very faint - some so much so that they can’t be seen without the help of a telescope. Its role is simply to collect more light than the unaided eye can, making astronomical sources appear both bigger and brighter, or even just to make most of them visible in the first place. A new generation of electronic detectors have made observations with the eye redundant. We now have cameras to record the images directly, or once it has been split into its constituent wavelengths by spectrographs. Even though there are a whole host of ingenious and complex instruments that enable us to record and analyse the light, they are still only able to work with the light they receive in the first place. -
Demonstration of Vortex Coronagraph Concepts for On-Axis Telescopes on the Palomar Stellar Double Coronagraph
Demonstration of vortex coronagraph concepts for on-axis telescopes on the Palomar Stellar Double Coronagraph Dimitri Maweta, Chris Sheltonb, James Wallaceb, Michael Bottomc, Jonas Kuhnb, Bertrand Mennessonb, Rick Burrussb, Randy Bartosb, Laurent Pueyod, Alexis Carlottie, and Eugene Serabynb aEuropean Southern Observatory, Alonso de C´ordova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla 19001, Chile; bJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA; cCalifornia Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91106, USA; dSpace Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; eInstitut de Plan´etologieet d'Astrophysique de Grenoble (IPAG), University Joseph Fourier, CNRS, BP 53, 38041, Grenoble, France; ABSTRACT Here we present preliminary results of the integration of two recently proposed vortex coronagraph (VC) concepts for on-axis telescopes on the Stellar Double Coronagraph (SDC) bench behind PALM-3000, the extreme adaptive optics system of the 200-inch Hale telescope of Palomar observatory. The multi-stage vortex coronagraph (MSVC) uses the ability of the vortex to move light in and out of apertures through multiple VC in series to restore the nominal attenuation capability of the charge 2 vortex regardless of the aperture obscurations. The ring-apodized vortex coronagraph (RAVC) is a one-stage apodizer exploiting the VC Lyot-plane amplitude distribution in order to perfectly null the diffraction from any central obscuration size, and for any vortex topological charge. The RAVC is thus a simple concept that makes the VC immune to diffraction effects of the secondary mirror. It combines a vortex phase mask in the image plane with a single pupil-based amplitude ring apodizer, tailor-made to exploit the unique convolution properties of the VC at the Lyot-stop plane. -
The Big Eye Vol 2 No 1
Friends of Palomar Observatory P.O. Box 200 Palomar Mountain, CA 92060-0200 The Big Eye The Newsletter of the Friends of Palomar Observatory Vol. 2, No. 1 Solar System Now Palomar’s Astronomical Has Eight Planets Bandwidth The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a “dwarf plan- For the past three years, astronomers at the et,” a designation that will also be applied to the spheri- California Institute of Technology’s Palomar Obser- cal body discovered last year by California Institute of vatory in Southern California have been using the Technology planetary scientist Mike Brown and his col- High Performance Wireless Research and Education leagues. The decision means that only the rocky worlds Network (HPWREN) as the data transfer cyberin- of the inner solar system and the gas giants of the outer frastructure to further our understanding of the uni- system will hereafter be designated as planets. verse. Recent applications include the study of some The ruling effectively settles a year-long controversy of the most cataclysmic explosions in the universe, about whether the spherical body announced last year and the hunt for extrasolar planets, and the discovery informally named “Xena” would rise to planetary status. of our solar system’s tenth planet. The data for all Somewhat larger than Pluto, the body has been informally this research is transferred via HPWREN from the known as Xena since the formal announcement of its remote mountain observatory to college campuses discovery on July 29, 2005, by Brown and his co-discov- hundreds of miles away. -
Effective Aperture 3.6–4.9 M) 4.7 M 186″ Segmented, MMT (6×1.8 M) F
Effective Effective Mirror type Name Site Built aperture aperture (m) (in) 10.4 m 409″ Segmented, Gran Telescopio Roque de los Muchachos 2006/9 36 Canarias (GTC) Obs., Canary Islands, Spain 10 m 394″ Segmented, Keck 1 Mauna Kea Observatories, 1993 36 Hawaii, USA 10 m 394″ Segmented, Keck 2 Mauna Kea Observatories, 1996 36 Hawaii, USA 9.8 m 386″ Segmented, Southern African South African Astronomical 2005 91 Large Telescope Obs., Northern Cape, South (SALT) Africa 9.2 m 362″ Segmented, Hobby-Eberly McDonald Observatory, 1997 91 Telescope (HET) Texas, USA (11 m × 9.8 m mirror) 8.4 m×2 330″×2 Multiple Large Binocular Mount Graham 2004 (can use mirror, 2 Telescope (LBT) Internationals Obs., Phased- Arizona array optics for combined 11.9 m[2]) 8.2 m 323″ Single Subaru (JNLT) Mauna Kea Observatories, 1999 Hawaii, USA 8.2 m 323″ Single VLT UT1 (Antu) Paranal Observatory, 1998 Antofagasta Region, Chile 8.2 m 323″ Single VLT UT2 (Kueyen) Paranal Observatory, 1999 Antofagasta Region, Chile 8.2 m 323″ Single VLT UT3 (Melipal) Paranal Observatory, 2000 Antofagasta Region, Chile 8.2 m 323″ Single VLT UT4 (Yepun) Paranal Observatory, 2001 Antofagasta Region, Chile 8.1 m 318″ Single Gemini North Mauna Kea Observatories, 1999 (Gillett) Hawaii, USA 8.1 m 318″ Single Gemini South Cerro Pachón (CTIO), 2001 Coquimbo Region, Chile 6.5 m 256″ Honeycomb Magellan 1 Las Campanas Obs., 2000 (Walter Baade) Coquimbo Region, Chile 6.5 m 256″ Honeycomb Magellan 2 Las Campanas Obs., 2002 (Landon Clay) Coquimbo Region, Chile 6.5 m 256″ Single MMT (1 x 6.5 M1) F. -
Making the Invisible Visible: a History of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003)/ by Renee M
MAKING THE INVISIBLE A History of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003) MONOGRAPHS IN AEROSPACE HISTORY, NO. 47 Renee M. Rottner MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE A History of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003) MONOGRAPHS IN AEROSPACE HISTORY, NO. 47 Renee M. Rottner National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Communications NASA History Division Washington, DC 20546 NASA SP-2017-4547 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Rottner, Renee M., 1967– Title: Making the invisible visible: a history of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003)/ by Renee M. Rottner. Other titles: History of the Spitzer Infrared Telescope Facility (1971–2003) Description: | Series: Monographs in aerospace history; #47 | Series: NASA SP; 2017-4547 | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2012013847 Subjects: LCSH: Spitzer Space Telescope (Spacecraft) | Infrared astronomy. | Orbiting astronomical observatories. | Space telescopes. Classification: LCC QB470 .R68 2012 | DDC 522/.2919—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2012013847 ON THE COVER Front: Giant star Zeta Ophiuchi and its effects on the surrounding dust clouds Back (top left to bottom right): Orion, the Whirlpool Galaxy, galaxy NGC 1292, RCW 49 nebula, the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, “yellow balls” in the W33 Star forming region, Helix Nebula, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 This publication is available as a free download at http://www.nasa.gov/ebooks. ISBN 9781626830363 90000 > 9 781626 830363 Contents v Acknowledgments