Astronomical Instrumentationat Texas A&M
Jennifer MarshallDarren DePoy
TAMU Instrumentation
• The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University has built a new astronomical instrumentation lab – Three years old– Led by Darren DePoy
• Mission: to design and build astronomical instrumentation to support Dark Energy and Cosmology observations
• Partner in DES, LSST, HETDEX/HET, GMT
DECam for DES
• Dark Energy Survey– Led by Fermilab– DECam: Large new camera
for CTIO 4m telescope• DePoy is Project Scientist
for DECam• TAMU is involved in
calibration efforts for DECam– DECal– aTmCam
Projection optics
Screen
Fiber bundle Spectro meter
Light source
Mono chromator
Photodiode
DECal for DES
Calibration system for DECam:
• Flat field screen• Daily flat field system
– LED flat field lamps• Spectrophotometric
calibration system– Long fiber bundle– Monochromator (with
spectrometer monitor)– Monitor photodiodes
aTmCam for DES• aTmCam is an atmospheric
monitoring camera• Goal: produce <1%
photometry by monitoring sky during DES observations
300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
1.3atmosphere throughput
wavelength in nm
norm
aliz
ed tr
ansm
ittan
ce
pressure ozone water
aerosol
‘cannon’ mask with wedge prism and narrowband filters
VIRUS for HETDEX
VIRUS is a new instrument for HET to support HETDEX survey– 150+ channel fiber-fed
spectrograph – >33,000 1.5” fibers– 350-550 nm coverage
at R~700
GMACS for GMT
• Texas A&M is a founding partner in the Giant Magellan Telescope
• Recently completed a one-year design study of GMACS– Wide field multi-object
optical spectrograph
MooSci for GMT
• We have built a lunar scintillometer called MooSci for GMT site testing
• Used to test site before and after top of mountain is removed
Antarctic instrumentation
• We are interested in collaborating in projects for Antarctica/Dome A– We have begun discussions with Teledyne
regarding purchasing detectors for KDUST– We could also help with camera design/testing
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