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Telescope Projects at Steward Observatory Work in Progress Astronomical Society of New York

Telescope Projects at Steward Observatory Work in Progress Astronomical Society of New York Union College Saturday, 24 October 2009 Peter Wehinger Steward Observatory University of Arizona. Casting a 6.5-m Mirror for San Pedro Martir Steward Observatory Mirror Lab

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Telescope Projects at Steward Observatory Work in Progress Astronomical Society of New York

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  1. Telescope Projects at Steward Observatory Work in Progress Astronomical Society of New York Union College Saturday, 24 October 2009 Peter Wehinger Steward Observatory University of Arizona

  2. Casting a 6.5-m Mirror for San Pedro Martir Steward Observatory Mirror Lab A World Class Site: San Pedro Martir Baja California, Mexico Peter Wehinger

  3. Hexagonal Columns of Al2SiO5 Honeycomb Structure Light-weight Spun-cast Mirrors

  4. Casting in Progress – 26 Aug 2009 SPM 6.5-m Mirror The Principals UNAM INAOE UC Berkeley UC Santa Cruz U Arizona

  5. San Pedro Martir A World Class Site Peter Wehinger Steward Observatory SOML Casting Event – 6.5-m Mirror 26 August 2009

  6. San Diego ~ 600 km Tucson Ensenada SPM Baja California and the Sonoran Desert 380 km

  7. Road to San Pedro Martir SPM Obs Meling Ranch Airfield Pico del Diablo 40 km 60 km

  8. Climatic & Seeing Conditions Clear Sky Statistics • Photometric ~ 63% (Tapia et al) • Satellite Imaging ~ 73% (Erasmus et al.) • Spectroscopic ~ 81% (Tapia et al.) Seeing Statistics • Median Seeing ~ 0.48 arc sec • Mean Seeing ~ 0.57 arc sec (FWHM) • 25th Percentile ~ 0.37 arc sec

  9. NIGHT SKY IN THE DESERT N Lick Lowell LA PHX LBT TUC Palomar Kitt Peak San Pedro Martir MMT HER SPM Sky brightness B ~ 22.3 mag/sec2

  10. San Diego Tijuana Yuma N Ensenada 300 km San Felipe SPM Sky Brightness at San Pedro Martir Darker than B ~ 22.3 mag/sec2 300 km

  11. Night Sky Spectrum on San Pedro Martir Intensity (erg/s/cm2/A) l (A)

  12. Remarks about SPM Night Sky • Integrated Light of Night Airglow Green Line [OI] 5577 • visible to ~10-15 deg above horizon • Arcturus – steady, no scintillation (twinkling) • Naked-eye limit at least ~ 7th magnitude • 10-12 of brightest galaxies in Virgo Cluster - visible • SPM has darkest night sky – Compared with other sites • Arizona, Chile, Hawaii, Himalayas

  13. 2425 m 2 km 2434 m Possible Air Field at Vallecitos ~ 5-6 km from telescopes

  14. LBT LARGE BINOCULAR TELESCOPE Site: Mt Graham, Arizona Two 8.4-m f/1.1 Mirrors

  15. Steward Observatory Mirror Lab Casting Bay 6.5-m 8.4-m 8.4-m

  16. LBT Edge-to-Edge ~ 22.4 m, Equivalent Circular Aperture ~ 11.8 m 30 m

  17. NGC 6946 with 8.2-m Subaru

  18. NGC 6946 with 8.4-m LBT

  19. GMTGIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPESite: Las Campanas, Chile

  20. GMT • seven 8.4-m Mirrors • 21.5-m Circular Aperture • 25.5-m Edge to Edge Graphics by Todd Mason

  21. GMT Partners as of Oct 2009 - • Carnegie Institution of Washington • University of Texas at Austin • Texas A & M University • University of Arizona • Australian National University • Astronomy Australia Ltd. • Harvard University • Smithsonian Institution • Korea Astronomy & Space Institute • + 1-2 others considering joining

  22. Mirror Lab Founder, Roger Angel inspects 8.4-m mirror for GMT

  23. GMT-1– polishing at ~ ±0.5 m, 16 Oct 2009 Final figure will be ±10-20 nm, 400x smoother

  24. When GMT is completed in ~ 10-12 years • What will be found…? • Remember Hale & Wickliffe Rose • Again there will be many surprises..!

  25. Three Planets b, c, & d Imaged around Star HR 8799 Light from central star is suppressed Discovery Announced 14 Nov 2008 Gemini 8.2 m

  26. Phil Hinz et al. Steward Observatory

  27. LSSTLARGE SYNOPTIC SURVEY TELESCOPESite: Cerro Pachon, Chile

  28. Founding Partners (2003) • University of Arizona • Research Corporation • University of Washington • NOAO • + 18 other institutions • (as of 2008)

  29. Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

  30. 3.4 m Secondary 64 cm Filters Focal Plane Field Flattener LSST Optical Layout 6.28m Tertiary f/0.8 4.96 m Primary f/1.25 8.36 m Design: L. Seppala, LLNL

  31. 64 cm Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Project Overview & Goals • 10-sec exposures ~ 24 mag. • 3.5 Gpix/image – 10 sq. deg • 30-40 Terabytes per night • Entire sky surveyed in 4 nights • Search for Near-Earth Objects • Survey the Kuiper Belt • Probe dark matter • Many Surprises • Serendipitous Discoveries

  32. LSST 8.4-m Primary Mirror 22 October 2008 Lifting off oven floor Weight ~ 52 tons Glass ~ 26 tons

  33. LSST 8.4-m Primary Mirror 22 October 2008 During move from oven to holding ring Weight ~ 103,000 lbs Glass ~ 52,000 lbs

  34. Ground-Layer Adaptive Optics Recent Results on MMT

  35. Planet found around the Nearby star b Pictoris ESO 8.1-m Telescope

  36. The MMT multi-laser GLAO system

  37. 110” MMT results: M3 Open loop, Ks filter, seeing 0.70” Logarithmic scale

  38. 110” MMT results: M3 Closed loop GLAO, Ks filter, seeing 0.30” Logarithmic scale

  39. NGC 2770 – First Light Binocular Image with LBT Gamma-Ray Burst Supernova 11 Jan 2007

  40. Optical Images of X-ray Nova XTE J1550-564 Magellan 1 6.5-m Telescope (Baade) Las Campanas Observatory VLT UT1 8-m Telescope & FORS 1: ESO 1 Paul Groot, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Jerome Orosz, University of Utrecht

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