Instrumentation Commons^™

Toltec: A New Multichroic Imaging Polarimeter For The Large Millimeter Telescope, Nat S. Denigris

Doctoral Dissertations

The TolTEC camera is a new millimeter-wave imaging polarimeter designed to fill the focal plane of the 50-m diameter Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT). Combined with the LMT, TolTEC offers high angular resolution (5", 6.3", 9.5") for simultaneous, polarization-sensitive observations in its three wavelength bands: 1.1, 1.4, and 2.0 mm. Additionally, TolTEC is designed to reach groundbreaking mapping speeds in excess of 1 deg²/mJy²/hr, which will enable the completion of deep surveys of large-scale structure, galaxy evolution, and star formation that are currently limited when considering practical observation times for other ground-based observatories. This thesis covers the …

Impact Of Radio Frequency Interference And Real-Time Spectral Kurtosis Mitigation, Evan T. Smith

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

We catalog the ubiquity of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) plaguing every modern radio telescope and investigate several ways to mitigate it in order to create better science-ready data products for astronomers. There are a myriad of possible RFI sources, including satellite uplinks and downlinks, cellular communications, air traffic radar, and natural sources such as lightning. Real-time RFI mitigation strategies must take these RFI characteristics into account, as the interfering signals can look significantly different at very high time and frequency resolutions.

We examine Spectral Kurtosis (SK) as a real-time statistical RFI detection method, and compare its flagging efficacy against simulated …

Corrigendum: The Remote Observatories Of The Southeastern Association For Research In Astronomy (Sara), William C. Keel, Terry Oswalt, Peter Mack, Gary Henson, Todd Hillwig, Daniel Batcheldor, Robert Berrington, Chris De Pree, Dieter Hartmann, Martha Leake, Javier Licandro, Brian Murphy, James Webb, Matt A. Wood

Publications

Bill Gray of Project Pluto brought to our attention an error of 0.03° in the listed latitude of our Kitt Peak telescope. While correcting the table where this occurred, we also take the opportunity to update the instrument properties and weather statistics of our remote telescopes

Determining The Rotational And Orbital Velocities Of Objects In The Solar System, Mark Jones

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Astronomers have been observing the night sky for many centuries to establish a better understanding for our universe and solar system. As part of their observations, astronomers characterize celestial bodies by fundamental properties such as mass, motion, and composition in order to provide further insight about the objects in question. As technology and science have evolved, the methods for measuring these properties have become more precise and accurate. One such methodology is known as spectroscopy, and it is a significant tool for observational astronomy. In this paper, we shall describe how we used astronomical spectroscopy to determine orbital and rotational …

Design And Construction Of A Computer Controlled Astronomical Spectropolarimeter, Jacob Marchio

Honors College

A theoretical description of a simple optical train, modulated signal based spectropolarimeter is discussed. The design includes, after the telescope optical tube (in this case, a 9.25” Schmidt Cassegrain), a rotating quarter waveplate (compensator), a fixed linear polarizer (analyzer), and transmission grating of 100l/mm, with a ZWO ASI290mm astronomical camera. The practical constraints on implementing such an instrument are discussed, and the construction of the spectropolarimeter is detailed, including the necessary optics, optomechanics, and electromechanics. The rotation and recording of the rotating compensator is facilitated by a motorized connection with proportional feedback control, and the uncertainty in measuring the angle …

Automated Spectroscopic Detection And Mapping Using Alma And Machine Learningtechniques, Steven Cocke, Andrew Wilkins, Josephine Mcdaniel, John Santerre, Conor Nixon

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper we present a methodology for automating theclassification of spectrally resolved observations of multiple emissionlines with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).Molecules in planetary atmospheres emit or absorb different wavelengthsof light thereby providing a unique signature for each species. ALMAdata were taken from interferometric observations of Titan made be-tween UT 2012 July 03 23:22:14 and 2012 July 04 01:06:18 as part ofALMA project 2011.0.00319.S. We first employed a greedy set cover algorithm to identify the most probable molecules that would reproducethe set of frequencies with respective flux greater than 3σaway from themean. We then selected a subset of …

Unh Observatory Exoplanet Transit Depth Limit, Nicholas R. Larose

Honors Theses and Capstones

Using the University of New Hampshire Observatory, we performed multiple exoplanet transits observations on a variety of systems. Of these transits, those performed with ideal weather conditions were chosen to do extensive analysis on. The transit chosen for initial analysis was HAT-P-56b. We then used Z-Score values, along with the average mean and standard deviation collected from multiple transits to determine a minimum possible transit depth of 7.4 +/- 0.6 mmag. This value will allow UNH to access exoplanet transit observation and / or confirm potential exoplanets, thus making the UNH Observatory more research capable. A follow up threshold transit …

Unseen Science: Modern Discoveries Too Far Away Or Tiny For Human Eyes, Lucy Huang

Capstones

As science has progressed, scientists have realized that evidence goes beyond the realms of physical sight. Whether it is too small or difficult to find, scientists have developed different ways to get around this problem. We see this in cancer genomics and in extrasolar planetary research. Scientists use what they know and what they measure to validate their work.

https://lucy-huang-9tge.squarespace.com/

Book Review: Shoot The Moon: A Complete Guide To Lunar Imaging, T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of Shoot the Moon: a Complete Guide to Lunar Imaging by Dupont-Bloch, Nicolas. Cambridge, 2016, 323 p index, 9781107548442 $39.95, 9781316657867 $32.00.

Book Review: From The Realm Of The Nebulae To Populations Of Galaxies: Dialogues On A Century Of Research, Astrophysics And Space Science Library, 435, T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of From the Realm of the Nebulae to Populations of Galaxies : Dialogues on a Century of Research, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, 435. by Mauro D'Onofrio, Roberto Rampazzo, and Simone Zaggia Springer, 2016 785p bibl index afp, 9783319310046 $279.00, 9783319310060 $219.00

Maximizing Precision Of Variable Star Photometry With Digital Cameras In Suburban Environments, David Hergesheimer

STAR Program Research Presentations

Photometry is the measure of the brightness of an object. When making such measurements on stars, it is done is units of magnitude, which is on a logarithmic scale with a base of ~2.512. Variable star photometry using a commercially available digital camera is not going to be as accurate and precise as equipment used by astronomers, and because of the logarithmic scale of magnitude used, determining how much of an effect different error reduction strategies have is not straightforward, and is best done experimentally.

My research is conducting photometry on variable stars (changing brightness) with a digital camera, and …

A Digital Backend For The Low Frequency All Sky Monitor, Louis Percy Dartez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Low Frequency All Sky Monitor (LoFASM) is a distributed array of dipole antennas that are sensitive to radio frequencies from 10 to 88 MHz. The primary science goals of LoFASM are the detection and study of low-frequency radio transients, a high priority science goal as deemed by the National Research Council's decadal survey. LoFASM consists of antennas and front-end electronics that were originally developed for the Long Wavelength Array (LWA) by the U.S. Naval Research Lab, the University of New Mexico, Virginia Tech, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. LoFASM, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, will initially consist …

Validation Of Data Reduction Interactive Pipeline For Forcast On Sofia, Brent C. Nicklas, William T. Reach, Sachindev S. Shenoy

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a heavily modified Boeing 747SP aircraft equipped with 2.5 meter reflecting telescope. Among the suite of instruments onboard is the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST). FORCAST features two cameras for short (5-25 microns) and long (25-40 microns) wavelength detection. Making infrared observations in these wavelengths presents a challenge because the telescope and sky emit background radiation magnitudes brighter than the object of interest. Because of this, the raw FORCAST data must be corrected and reduced. The Data Reduction Interactive Pipeline (DRIP) was developed to process all FORCAST data …

Analyzing The Performance Of The Sofia Infrared Telescope, Sarah M. Bass, Jeffrey Van Cleve, Zaheer Ali

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is an airborne near-space observatory onboard a modified Boeing 747-SP aircraft, which flies at altitudes of 45,000 ft., above 99% of the Earth’s water vapor. SOFIA contains an effective 2.5 m infrared (IR) telescope that has a dichroic tertiary mirror, reflecting IR and visible wavelengths to the science instrument (SI) and focal plane imager (FPI), respectively. To date, seven different SIs have been designed to cover a wide range of wavelengths and spectral resolutions. Since the telescope operates in the infrared, different techniques, including chopping, nodding, and dithering, are used to reduce the …

Telescope Assembly Alignment Simulator Performance Optimization, Joshua G. Thompson, Brian Eney, Zaheer Ali, Bob Thompson

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Telescope Assembly Alignment Simulator (TAAS) calibrates scientific instruments (SI’s) that are installed on the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). An SI’s accuracy is directly dependent on the consistent performance of the TAAS, which has never been fully characterized. After designing various thermal and optical experiments to identify the current unknowns of TAAS, we now have a far better grasp on how the equipment behaves.

Book Review: New Eyes On The Universe: Twelve Cosmic Mysteries And The Tools We Need To Solve Them, T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of New Eyes on the Universe : Twelve Cosmic Mysteries and the Tools We Need to Solve Them by Stephen Webb. Springer/Praxis, 2012 371p, 9781461421931 $44.95, 9781461421948

Book Review: Electronic Imaging In Astronomy: Detectors And Instrumentation 2nd Ed., T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of Electronic imaging in astronomy : detectors and instrumentation 2nd ed. by Ian S. McLean, Springer/Praxis, 2008 552p, 9783540765820 $99.00

Book Review: The Telescope: Its History, Technology, And Future, T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of The Telescope : Its History, Technology, and Future by Geoff Andersen. Princeton, 2007 248p, 0691129797 $29.95, 9780691129792 $29.95.

Stargazing: Observatories At Gettysburg College, 1874-Present, Andrew A. Carlson

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

Astronomy has long been a subject which has attracted the interest of man. Examples of early astronomers can be found in many ancient civilizations, including but not limited to, the Egyptians, the Chinese and the Greeks. As time passed the methods for interpreting the stars and theories that surrounded them changed concordant with the technology available. One of the largest breakthroughs in the world of astronomy was the invention of the telescope in the early seventeenth century. Often mis-attributed to Galileo (who was responsible for building the first reflecting telescope in 1688), the telescope was actually first designed by a …

An Astronomical Account: A History Of Hatter Planetarium From 1966-2006, Jonathan D. Neu

Hidden in Plain Sight Projects

When most individuals stare up at the vast dome of Hatter Planetarium, they often gaze upon the projected stars appearing on its surface, listening to an astronomical story told by one of its operators. However, there is a second story told by the planetarium itself. This story is the history of Hatter Planetarium, which spans five decades and includes the events in the lives of several individuals who have played a critical role in its existence at Gettysburg College. Its history has encompassed several phases of Gettysburg College traditions but is in danger of passing permanently and fixedly into the …

Book Review: Stargazer: The Life And Times Of The Telescope, T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of Stargazer : the Life and Times of the Telescope by Fred Watson. Da Capo, 2004 342p, 0306814323 $24.95

Book Review: The New Amateur Astronomer, T. D. Oswalt

Publications

This document is Dr. Oswalt’s review of The New Amateur Astronomer by Martin Mobberley. Springer, 2004 229p, 1852336633 $34.95

Observations And Analysis Of The Aquarii Jet, Menas Kafatos, Andrew G. Michalitsianos

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Ultraviolet, optical and radio observations of the symbiotic star R Aquarii are discussed in the light of the discovery of a bright radio and optical jet from this star. The star is probably a binary with a period of 44 years. The VLA maps of the jet reveal a protruding structure extending-10 arc sec from the central radio source with a position angle virtually identical to that of the optical jet observed at Lick. We interpret the observations of R Aqr as indicating the existence of an accretion disk around an unseen companion. The hot subdwarf has effective temperature ,(65,000 …

The Spectroscope In Astronomy, W. W. Payne

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.