Download - 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