telescope projects at steward observatory work in progress astronomical society of new york

Telescope Projects at Steward ObservatoryWork in Progress

Astronomical Society of New York Union College

Saturday, 24 October 2009

Peter WehingerSteward ObservatoryUniversity of Arizona

Casting a 6.5-m Mirror for San Pedro Martir

Steward Observatory Mirror Lab

A World Class Site: San Pedro MartirBaja California, Mexico

Peter Wehinger

HexagonalColumns

ofAl2SiO5

HoneycombStructure

Light-weightSpun-castMirrors

Casting in Progress –

26 Aug 2009

SPM 6.5-mMirror

The Principals

UNAMINAOE

UC BerkeleyUC Santa

CruzU Arizona

San Pedro MartirA World Class Site

Peter WehingerSteward Observatory

SOML Casting Event – 6.5-m Mirror26 August 2009

SPM

Tucson

Ensenada

San Diego~ 600 km

Baja California and the Sonoran Desert

380 km

SPM Obs

Pico del Diablo

Meling Ranch Airfield

Road to San Pedro Martir

60 km

40 km

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

LBT

Kitt Peak

Lick

Palomar

MMT

Lowell

NIGHT SKY IN THE DESERT

SPM Sky brightness B ~ 22.3 mag/sec2

PHXLA

TUC

HER

N

San Pedro Martir

Ensenada

Yuma

San Felipe

San Diego

Tijuana

SPM

Sky Brightness at San Pedro Martir

Darker than B ~ 22.3 mag/sec2

300 km

300 km

N

Night Sky Spectrum on San Pedro MartirIn

tensi

ty (

erg

/s/c

m2/A

)

(A)

Remarks about SPM Night Sky

• Integrated Light of Night Airglow Green Line [OI] 5577visible 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

Possible Air Field at Vallecitos ~ 5-6 km from telescopes

2425 m

2434 m

2 km

LBT

LARGE BINOCULAR TELESCOPE

Site: Mt Graham, Arizona

Two 8.4-m f/1.1 Mirrors

StewardObservatoryMirror Lab Casting Bay

6.5-m

8.4-m

8.4-m

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

30 m

NGC 6946 with 8.2-m Subaru

NGC 6946 with 8.4-m LBT

GMT

GIANT MAGELLAN TELESCOPE

Site: Las Campanas, Chile

GMT• seven 8.4-m Mirrors

• 21.5-m Circular Aperture

• 25.5-m Edge to Edge

Graphics by Todd Mason

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

Mirror Lab Founder, Roger Angel

inspects 8.4-m mirror for GMT

GMT-1– polishing at ~ ±0.5Oct 2009

Final figure will be ±10-20 nm, 400x smoother

When GMT is completed in ~ 10-12 years

• What will be found…?

• Remember Hale & Wickliffe Rose

• Again there will be many surprises..!

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

Phil Hinz et al. Steward Observatory

LSST

LARGE SYNOPTIC SURVEY TELESCOPE

Site: Cerro Pachon, Chile

Founding Partners (2003)

• University of Arizona• Research Corporation• University of Washington• NOAO• + 18 other institutions (as of 2008)

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

LSST Optical Layout

8.36 m

6.28m

4.96 m

3.4 m

64 cm

Primary f/1.25

Secondary

Tertiary f/0.8

Focal Plane

Design: L. Seppala, LLNL

Filters

Field Flattener

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

64 cm

LSST

8.4-m Primary Mirror

22 October 2008

Lifting off oven floor

Weight ~ 52 tons

Glass ~ 26 tons

LSST

8.4-m Primary Mirror

22 October 2008

During move from oven to holding ring

Weight ~ 103,000 lbs

Glass ~ 52,000 lbs

Ground-Layer Adaptive Optics

Recent Results on MMT

Planet found around the Nearby starPictoris

ESO 8.1-m Telescope

The MMT multi-laser GLAO system

Laser type 2 x doubled YAG (15 W each)

Wavelength 532 nm

Pulse rep rate 5.2 kHz

Average power 30 W

Launch location Behind secondary mirror

Number of beacons

5, arranged like a pentagon

Enclosed field of view

2 arc minutes

Beacon type Rayleigh scattering

Range gate 20-29 km, dynamic refocusing

MMT results: M3

Open loop, Ks filter, seeing 0.70”

Logarithmic scale

110”

MMT results: M3

Closed loop GLAO, Ks filter, seeing 0.30”

Logarithmic scale

110”

NGC 2770 – First Light Binocular Image with LBT

11 Jan 2007

Supernova

Gamma-Ray Burst

Magellan 1 6.5-m Telescope (Baade) Las Campanas Observatory

VLT UT1 8-m Telescope & FORS 1: ESO

Paul Groot, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Jerome Orosz, University of Utrecht

1

Optical Images of X-ray Nova XTE J1550-564