“Beautiful and cantankerous instruments”: telescopes, technology, and astronomy’s changing practice

Between the dedication of the 200” Hale Telescope in 1948 and the completion of today’s 8–10 m behemoths, astronomers’ most iconic symbol, the telescope itself—its design, its technology, and its use—was transformed as a research tool. The importance of this is deceptively simple: in astronomy, technological innovations have often led to new discoveries. Driven by the need to get as much observing time as possible and the desire to take advantage of the best observing conditions, modern observatories have experimented with new technologies and modes of collecting images and spectra. This entailed a re-casting of the telescope by astronomers and science managers as a factory of scientific data. At the same time, contemporary astronomers express considerable unease and apprehension about how these technological changes have altered, in ways subtle and profound, the nature of astronomical observing and what it meant to be an astronomer. This short essay addresses the issues associated with these recent changes in astronomical practice and their connections to astronomers’ desire for ever larger and more complex telescopes.     

A High-Resolution Solar Telescope Using Dark-Lens Diffractive Optics

A telescope based upon dark-lens diffractive optics would be a uniquely new instrument for solar astronomy. The image formation process in such a telescope gives an intrinsically higher resolving power and a greatly reduced image intensity compared to that of refracting or reflecting optical systems of similar lens dimension. This low image intensity would be an advantage for solar observations made using a very large imaging element. After a brief overview of the history of solar instrument development, a quantitative evaluation of the dark-lens diffracting solar telescope concept is presented, showing the potential of this imaging method to meet or even to exceed the most demanding resolution goals currently being considered for future space-borne solar telescopes.     

Wide Field Multi-object Spectrograph for 30 m Class Optical/Near-infrared Telescopes

Due to its wide wavelength coverage, multi-resolution mode, and high transmission efficiency, the wide field multi-object spectrograph becomes the most common-used universal instrument in extremely large telescopes. It's still a great challenge to build the wide field multi-object spectrograph for a 30 m class telescope because of its sharply increased volume and budget. With the rapid development of astronomy and astrophysics, the innovation of astronomical technology is fundamentally required. In this paper, the research progress of different kinds of wide-field multi-object spectrographs is illustrated and reviewed, the recent status of conceptual designs and the instrument features of the wide field multi-object spectrographs of the three 30 m class telescopes in the world, especially the current effort made by the Chinese team for the wide field multi-object spectrograph of the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) are introduced.     

Super resolution for astronomical observations

In order to obtain detailed information from multiple telescope observations a general blind super-resolution (SR) reconstruction approach for astronomical images is proposed in this paper. A pixel-reliability-based SR reconstruction algorithm is described and implemented, where the developed process incorporates flat field correction, automatic star searching and centering, iterative star matching, and sub-pixel image registration. Images captured by the 1-m telescope at Yunnan Observatory are used to test the proposed technique. The results of these experiments indicate that, following SR reconstruction, faint stars are more distinct, bright stars have sharper profiles, and the backgrounds have higher details; thus these results benefit from the high-precision star centering and image registration provided by the developed method. Application of the proposed approach not only provides more opportunities for new discoveries from astronomical image sequences, but will also contribute to enhancing the capabilities of most spatial or ground-based telescopes.     

Prospects for astronomical development in South Africa

Because of its geographical location and (astronomically) excellent climate South Africa can make an unique contribution to international astronomical research. An assessment of recent developments in telescope technology has shown that an advanced technology telescope of 4m-class can be constructed which will out-perform most existing 4m-class telescopes. Detailed consideration is given to the construction of such a telescope for optical/infrared astronomy, the new science that this will enable and the selection of a site of sufficiently good quality to justify the erection of such a telescope. If a telescope of this nature is sited in southern Africa it would provide the premier astronomical facility in Africa for decades to come.     

The development of the Schmidt telescope

Bernhard Schmidt (1879–1935) was born in Estonia. After a few years of studying engineering he ran an optical workshop in Mittweida, Saxonia, between 1901 and 1927. Astronomers appreciated the quality of his telescopes. Starting in 1925, on behalf of the Hamburg Observatory, he developed a short focal length optical system with a large field of view. For this purpose, Schmidt moved his workshop to the observatory. He succeeded in inventing the “Schmidt telescope” which allows the imaging of a large field of the sky without any distortions. Schmidt's first telescope (spherical mirror diameter 0.44 m, correction plate 0.36 m diameter, aperture ratio 1:1.75, and focal length 0.625 m) has been used since 1962 at the Boyden Observatory in Bloemfontein/South Africa. Apart from his 0.36m telescope, Schmidt produced a second larger one of 0.60m aperture. Shortly after Schmidt's death, the director of the observatory published details on the invention and production of the Schmidt telescope. After World War II, Schmidt telescopes have been widely used. The first large Schmidt telescope, the “Big Schmidt” (1.26 m), Mount Palomar, USA, was completed in 1948. The 0.80 m Schmidt telescope of Hamburg Observatory, planned since 1936, finished in 1954, is now on Calar Alto/Spain (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

德令哈13.7m望远镜多波束接收机的运行

德令哈13.7 m望远镜是中国最重要的射电望远镜之一.望远镜自安装超导成像频谱仪以及采用飞行观测模式以来,运行近10 yr.在此期间,望远镜开展并完成大量的天文观测,累积了巨量的天文数据,取得了一系列重要的科研成果.介绍了超导成像频谱仪在天文观测中的运行状态,运行中疑难问题、故障现象及解决方案.详述了超导成像频谱仪各方面性能测试及多年来的性能分析,包含接收机噪声温度及望远镜系统噪声温度、镜像抑制比、接收机稳定性、波束性能等方面.列举了超导成像频谱仪更新发展方面的工作,包含本振功率自动化调整、边带分离型超导混频器预放大电路的更新、控制程序的优化等.总结经验和规律,承前启后,将过去的超导成像频谱仪的维护运行经验应用到之后新一代大规模接收机系统中.     

ESO and European astronomy: four decades of reciprocity

This paper describes and discusses some key facts in the early history of the European Southern Observatory: the founding phase leading to the establishment of the “nucleus” of telescopes in Chile, the role and impact of the “parallel line” of national telescopes, the mission of ESO and the impact of the organisation as a maecenas to European astronomy. With specific focus on the foundation of A & A as a refereed journal foregoing page charges, the support of national telescopes of all classes, the allotment of telescope time on the sole basis of proposal quality, the free travel and technical support, the free distribution of “The Messenger”, the development and free distribution of MIDAS, and the personal dedication of some early foster persons.     

The Operation of Multi-beam Receiver of Delingha 13.7 m Telescope

Delingha 13.7 m telescope is one of the most important radio telescopes in China. Since installing the superconducting spectroscopic array receiver (SSAR) and adopting the On The Fly (OTF) observation mode, the telescope has operated for nearly 10 years. During this period, a large number of astronomical observation projects have been carried out and completed, a large amount of astronomical data have been accumulated, and a series of important scientific results have been achieved. This paper introduces the operating status of SSAR in astronomical observations, the problems in operations, as well as the fault phenomena and solutions. The performance test and performance analysis of SSAR are described in detail, including the receiver noise temperature and telescope system noise temperature, image rejection ratio (IRR), receiver stability, beam performance and so on. The updating and development of SSAR are listed, including the automatic adjustment of LO (Local Oscillator) power, the updating of pre-amplification circuits of the sideband separation superconducting mixer, and the optimization of control program, etc. This paper summarizes the experiences and rules, and connects the past with the future, for applying the experiences of the maintenance and operation of SSAR to the next-generation large-scale receiver system.     

天文望远镜光学传递函数的一种测量方法

基于哈特曼检测所求出的点列图分布，给出适用于天文望远镜的光学传递函数的测量方法；并给出云南天文台１．２ｍ地平式望远镜的光学传递函数值     

Science, Technology and Detectors for Extremely Large Telescopes

The second decade of the third millennium will hopefully see a new generation of extremely large telescopes. These will have diameters from 30 to 100 meters and use advanced adaptive optics to operate at the diffraction limit in order to detect astronomical objects that are impossible to observe today, such as earth-like planets around nearby stars and the earliest objects in the Universe. Even for small fields of view, the requirements for detectors are daunting, with sizes of several gigapixels, very fast readout times and extremely low readout noise. In this paper I briefly review the science case for ELTs and the requirements they set on telescopes and instruments, and report on the status of the OWL 100 m telescope project and the challenges it poses.     

Operational testing of the SBIG ST-6 CCD camera

The SBIG Model ST-6 CCD Imaging Camera was tested and found suitable for various kinds of astronomical observations on telescopes with apertures from 6 mm to 0.6 m. We discuss different noise sources, linearity, sensitivity, and other detector characteristics. Limits, which they set to the observations and accuracy of data evaluation process, are also discussed. Detection, accurate astrometry, and VR photometry limiting magnitudes are about 21, 20, and 17.5, respectively, with the 0.6-m telescope and 10-min integration time. Detection of 5th magnitude 1-second optical transients is possible with the 6-mm wide-field lens.     

LAMOST子镜镀膜研究进展

对大口径光学/红外天文望远镜而言,为保障其稳定高效运行,镜面镀膜是重要的维护环节之一.镀膜质量的好坏直接影响镜面光学反射率的高低,也严重影响到天文望远镜的成像质量、观测效率.国家重大科技基础设施—大天区面积多目标光纤光谱天文望远镜(Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope, LAMOST,又名郭守敬望远镜)自2009年6月通过国家竣工验收并逐步投入巡天观测,目前已进入第2个5 yr巡天计划阶段,取得近两千万的光谱产出和大批高显示度的科学成果. LAMOST共拥有24块施密特改正镜子镜和37块球面主镜子镜,为了确保在野外恶劣观测环境下镜面反射率维持在较高水平,每年要对大批子镜进行镀膜.主要介绍了镀膜需求、镀膜设备,并基于大量实验和多年的完善探索出一套可行的镀膜工艺流程,确保了LAMOST子镜极高的镀膜质量.镀膜后子镜平均反射率高达90%以上,满足了LAMOST光谱巡天的镜面反射率要求.     

RTS2中新CCD类型扩展方法

CCD是天文望远镜中最常见的观测终端设备,也是望远镜自主控制系统中的重要组成部分。随着天文望远镜自主观测需求的不断出现以及技术的快速发展,开源的RTS2软件系统成为目前该领域研究中受到较多关注的系统之一。但RTS2支持的CCD设备较为有限,同时控制接口约定也相对固定。在针对部分特殊的CCD设备(如LAMOST中采用的32台CCD设备、选址用的部分CCD设备)时,仅实现原有类的方法是不够的。在深入分析RTS2源码的基础上,重点从参数、命令、协议扩展方面研究基于原有的Camera类,通过继承的方法构造新的CCD类型,实现对LAMOST项目的 CCD控制,取得了较好的效果,对在RTS2中集成望远镜系统其他类型设备也有较好的参考价值。     

STELLA and RoboTel – a prototype for a robotic network?

Robotic telescopes are more and more commonly used in today's astronomical research. In fact, several facilities are spread around the globe, already forming a loose net. A big leap forward would lie in the capabilities to share observations between different telescopes. One gains immediately weather independence and the possibility of continuous observations from a working network. In this paper, the three robotic telescope operated under the hood of the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam are introduced, the potential of a robotic telescope network are sketched out and principle hints on accomplishing such a network are outlined. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Space VLBI Geodesy: background of an experiment proposal

Space VLBI is a new observing technique which will be available in the second half of this decade by radio telescopes as interferometer elements in orbit. Besides the main astronomical interests, this new development has some very interesting potential applications in satellite dynamics, geodesy and geodynamical research which qualify space VLBI a potential new technique in space geodesy. A geodesy demostration experiment (GEDEX) is being proposed for the Japanese space VLBI satellite-VSOP, with the main objectives of reference frame interconnections and orbit accuracy improvement of the space radio telescope. The paper gives a review of the special characteristics of space VLBI and a general background of the GEDEX proposal.     

地平式望远镜轴系误差对指向精度和跟踪精度的影响

采用球面几何的方法推导轴系位置误差对地平式望远镜指向、跟踪精度影响的计算模型.介绍2米级地平式望远镜轴系误差检测及数据处理方法.通过对目标星体指向、跟踪仿真,得到轴系位置误差对指向、跟踪精度影响规律,为轴系精度及轴系位置要求提供理论依据,并为后续控制修正提供参考模型.     

Cross-calibration of DIMM monitors at Oukaimden observatory and Marrakesh site

Over the past years, several differential image motion monitors (DIMM) have been built almost everywhere. The DIMM instrument is made up of simple material such as telescope, mask, camera ..., and it is widely used in seeing measurement campaigns. In order to carry out a prospecting campaign, for the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) project, in the Moroccan High Atlas, we have built a new DIMM instrument in our laboratory. To characterize this instrument, we have carried out a cross-calibration between DIMM monitors using different configurations. In this paper we will present the results of those various experiments respectively at Oukaimden site and at the “École Normal Supérieure” (ENS) in the city of Marrakech.     

MACHETE: A transit imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescope to survey half of the very high energy γ-ray sky

Current imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes for very high energy γ-ray astrophysics are pointing instruments with a field of view up to a few tens of sq deg. We propose to build an array of two non-steerable (drift) telescopes. Each of the telescopes would have a camera with a FOV of 5 × 60 sq deg oriented along the meridian. About half of the sky drifts through this FOV in a year. We have performed a Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the performance of this instrument. We expect it to survey this half of the sky with an integral flux sensitivity of ∼0.77% of the steady flux of the Crab Nebula in 5 years, an analysis energy threshold of ∼150 GeV and an angular resolution of ∼0.1°. For astronomical objects that transit over the telescope for a specific night, we can achieve an integral sensitivity of 12% of the Crab Nebula flux in a night, making it a very powerful tool to trigger further observations of variable sources using steerable IACTs or instruments at other wavelengths.