Instrumentation for Ground-Based Optical Astronomy: Present and Future the Ninth Santa Cruz Summer Workshop in Astronomy and Astrophysics, July 13-Jul

ISBN-13: 9781461283874 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 751 str.

Lloyd B. Robinson

Opis

Historically, the discovery of tools, or evidence that tools have been used, has been taken as proof of human activity; certainly the invention and spread of new tools has been a critical marker of human progress and has increased our ability to observe, measure, and understand the physical world. In astronomy the tools are telescopes and the optical and electronic instruments that support them. The use of the telescope by Galileo marked the beginning of a new and productive way to study and understand the universe in which we live. The effects of this new tool on what we can see, and how we see ourselves, are well known. However, after almost four centuries of developing ever more sensitive and subtle instruments as tools for astronomy, it might have been expected that only a few minor improvements would remain to be made, or that possibly the law of diminishing returns would have taken effect. On the contrary, the new instruments and ideas for new instruments described in this book make it clear that the rate of progress has not diminished, and that this subject is still as exciting and productive as ever. Instrumentation for Ground-Based Optical Astronomy was chosen as the theme for the Ninth Santa Cruz Summer Workshop in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Spis treści

SESSION 1: High Resolution Spectrographs.- to the Session on High Resolution Spectrographs.- Aspects of the Optical Design of the AAT and WHT Echelle Spectrographs.- Overall Philosophy of the Echelle Spectrographs for the Anglo Australian Telescope and William Herschel Telescope.- The Lick Observatory Hamilton Echelle Spectrometer.- Optical Design of the ARC Echelle Spectrometer.- A Coudé Echelle Spectrograph with a Large Mosaic Grating but with Small Corrector Lenses.- A New High-Resolution CCD Spectrometer for the McDonald Observatory 2.7-Meter Telescope.- HIRES: A High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer for the Keck 10-Meter Telescope.- A Comparison of Holographic and Echelle Gratings in Astronomical Spectrometry.- What’s New in Gratings?.- Fabry-Perot Interferometers.- An Ultra-High Resolution Spectrograph in a Hurry.- SESSION 2: Low Resolution, Faint Object Spectrographs.- Overview of Faint Object Spectrographs.- A CCD Spectropolarimeter for the Lick Observatory 3-Meter Telescope.- Experience with the Palomar Double Spectrograph.- Optical Design of Image Stabilizer Systems and Associated Off-Axis Guiders.- An Immersion Grating for an Astronomical Spectrograph.- SESSION 3: Multi-Object Spectrographs.- to Session on Multi-Object Spectrographs.- Multiple Object Spectroscopy.- Multi-Object Spectrography at ESO and the CFHT.- Fiber-Fed Instrumentation at CTIO.- The MX Spectrometer: Operational Results.- Fiber Optics at Kitt Peak National Observatory.- Multifiber Spectroscopy for the Keck 10-Meter Telescope.- A Bench Fiber Fed Spectrograph for Stellar Line Variability Studies.- A New Device for Faint Objects High Resolution Imagery and Bidimensional Spectrography (First Observational Results with “TIGER” at CFHT 3.6-Meter Telescope).- All-Reflective Aspherized Grating Spectrographs at the Prime Focus of the CFHT.- The Large Pupil Case: The ESSEFEM Multislit Spectrograph.- SILFID: A Versatile Fiber-Optics Spectrograph for Faint Objects.- SESSION 4: Imaging and Photometry, Image Reconstruction.- to Session on Imaging and Photometry, Image Reconstruction.- Image Reconstruction Using Adaptive Optics.- Laser Guide Stars for Adaptive Optical Telescopes.- Speckle Imaging Review.- Image Stabilization at the ESO 2.2-Meter Telescope with DISCO.- Adaptive Optics Activities a ESO.- High-Resolution Imaging with Segmented Pupils.- A High Speed CCD Photometer for McDonald Observatory.- SESSION 5: Data Analysis, Software and Systems.- A User’s View of Data Reduction Systems.- Hardware and Software Portability and Performance.- The IRAF CCD Reduction Package — CCDRED.- The MIDAS Image Processing System.- The VISTA Astronomical CCD Data Reduction and Analysis Software.- The FIGARO Package for Astronomical Data Analysis.- SESSION 6: Detectors I: CCDs.- to CCD Session.- Traps and Deferred Charge in CCDs.- Recent CCD Technology Developments.- CCD Astrometry: One Primer and Two Problems.- Optical or Infrared — the Elusive Boundary.- SESSION 7: Detectors II: Infrared Photo-Cathodes, Photon Counters.- to Session on Photon-Counting Equipment.- Photon-Counting Detector Systems.- Properties of a 40-mm Microchannel Plate Intensifier.- The Ranicon Photon Counting Imager.- The RANICON for Ground Based Optical Astronomy.- Status of the MAMA Detector Development Program.- Experience with the MAMA Detector.- Development of Visible Light Sensitive Imaging Tubes with Microchannel Plate Intensifiers and Wedge and Strip Readout.- Interpolative Centroiding in Photon Counting Detectors.- The Photon Counting Camera CP40.- SESSION 8: Instrument Control, Data Acquisition.- to Session on Instrument Control and Data Acquisition.- New Instruments for Time-Series Photometry.- Standardization and Modularity of Instrument Controls for Astronomical Application at ESO.- UNIX and Data Collection in Astronomy.- The Control System for the UCL Coudé Echelle Spectrograph.- Optical Multi-Mode Instrumentation at the University of Sã Paulo.- Development of a High Speed Video Cassette Data Acquisition System for the Observation of Rapid Fluctuations in Solar Flares.- SESSION 9: Telescope Control, Remote Observing.- Session 9 Overview.- An Automated Supernova Search and the Design and Strategy.- An Overview of the Digitized Astronomy Supernovae Search Control and Image Processing Software.- The Status of Berkeley’s Real-Time Supernova Search.- Remote Use of the Apache Point 3.5-Meter Telescope.- The Control System for the Apache Point 3.5-Meter Telescope.- Pointing and Tracking Algorithms for the Keck 10-Meter Telescope.- CFHT Remote Observing Possibilities.- CCD TV Camera for Telescope Guiding.- Fifteen Degree Correcting Optics for a 10-Meter Liquid Mirror Telescope.- The Floating Boule Telescope Project.- SESSION 10: Equipment Available from Industry; Closing Session.- to Session on Equipment Available from Industry.- DFM Enginering, Inc. Generation III Telescope Control System TCS 68000.- A Large Area CCD Imaging System.- Workshop Summary.