On Sunday June 10th the SPIE Conference for Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation began in Austin, Texas, and ten employees of the MRO went to participate in presentations of a plethora of fascinating and noteworthy material. MRO Principle Investigator Michelle Creech-Eakman, Ph.D. was an important part of the event as she was one of the conference chairs and she was also a session chair for welcome and announcements, sessions 3, 6, and 15, and the wrap-ups and community discussions. Many employees presented their works either through formal presentation or through their posters where it was easier for them to interact with other interested scientists.
Michelle Creech-Eakman, Chris A. Haniff, David F. Buscher, John S. Young, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Ifan Payne, Fernando Santoro, Van D. Romero, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (United States)
In 2016 the first telescope of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MROI) was delivered and deployed at the Ridge in the maintenance facility. With initial check-out complete, we eagerly anticipate receiving the telescope enclosure early in 2018 and placing the integrated telescope and enclosure at the interferometric array by summer of 2018. By late 2020 we plan to demonstrate fringe-tracking, bootstrapping and limiting magnitudes for the facility will prove the full promise of MROI. A complete status update of all subsystems and plans for initial science, development of partnerships, and funding plans to complete the full facility will be presented.
Edgar R. Ligon, Chris D. Salcido, Magdalena Ridge Observatory, David F. Buscher, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Michelle Creech-Eakman, Magdalena Ridge Observatory, Christopher A. Haniff, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Fernando G. Santoro, Magdalena Ridge Observatory, Colby A. Jurgenson, Genesis Engineering Solutions, Inc. (United States); Tyler M. McCracken, Yale Univ. (United States); Luke M. Schmidt, Texas A&M Univ. (United States); John S. Young, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
Developments in detector technology have allowed for an alternative to the original choice of infrared array to finally become available – in particular, the SAPHIRA detector made by Selex. Very low read noise and very fast readout rates are significant reasons for adopting these new detectors, traits which also allow relaxation of some of the opto-mechanical requirements that were needed for the PICNIC chip to achieve marginal sensitivity. This (Paper will discuss the opto-mechanical advantages and challenges of using the SAPHIRA detector with the pre-existing hardware.
Jonathan Dooley, Magdalena Ridge Observatory, Michelle Creech-Eakman, Magdalena Ridge Observatory (United States)
Initial data for the current and ongoing experiment to measure and possibly predict the horizontal turbulent strength, $C_{N}^{2}$, of the atmosphere above the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI) is presented. $C_{N}^{2}$ is a representation of the atmosphere’s ability to transport scalars and is measured using a set of Kipp \& Zonen Large Aperature Scintillometers (LAS). LAS Calibration data as well as initial test data are presented and analyzed. Correlation techniques are used to determine the optimal method of $C_{N}^{2}$ calculation from the first generation LAS. A 19-day test over the array site was conducted and analyzed using both Fourier and wavelet analysis and filtration. Frequency analysis showed few periodic features due to the quasi-periodic nature of the signal.
James Luis, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Robert Blasi, Magdalena Ridge Observatory, David F. Buscher, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Allen Farris, Robert Kelly, Robert Ligon, Magdalena Ridge Observatory, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (United States)
We present a preliminary design for the Automated Alignment System for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI), tasked with performing a start-of-night alignment and providing subsequent corrections in between observations. Each of MROI’s ten beam lines will utilise two counter-propagating light sources, a pair of quad cells for monitoring coarse alignment, and a tilt and shear detector for tracking fine drifts. Using a novel application of a Shack-Hartmann array in our laboratory, we have demonstrated that deviations in tilt of 0.5 arcseconds and shears of less than 0.4% of the pupil diameter can be measured, both of which are better than the values demanded by the MROI error budget.
Christian Bastin, Olivier Pirnay, Vincent Moreau, Carlo Flebus, AMOS Ltd. (Belgium); Andres Olivares, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (United States)
The deployment of the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer has resumed in 2016. AMOS, in charge of the development of the unit telescopes, has completed the installation of the first telescope on the Ridge. The compactness of the system allows for a fast installation, as only the optics and their supports need to be transported in separate crates. The installation has been followed by the alignment procedure combining metrological and optical measurement techniques and aiming at optimizing the pupil stability and image quality. Finally, the performance of the telescope has been evaluated on the sky as part of the site acceptance.
Andres Olivares, Fernando Santoro, Christopher Salcido, Robert Ligon, Chuck Dahl, Perry Johnston, Robert Blasi, Allen Farris, Michelle Creech-Eakman, Ifan Payne, John Young, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Davide Marzotto, EIE Group s.r.l. (Italy); Olivier Pirnay, AMOS Ltd. (Belgium)
The Unit Telescope (UT) for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MROI) is composed of four major hardware components: the Telescope, Enclosure, Optics and the Fast Tip Tilt System (FTTS). Integration of the UT started in 2016 when the Telescope arrived and its Assembly, Integration and Verification activities began. Critical activities included: installation at the Maintenance Facility, integration and alignment of the Optics and Wave Front Sensor (WFS) and finally the Telescope alignment. End-to-end Telescope Site Acceptance Tests (SAT) were performed. Subsequent activities included receiving and integrating the FTTS. With the arrival and assembly of the Enclosure, the last component of the UT was ready for integration on a dedicated concrete pier. Specialized equipment was used for the final integration of the UT, and for transportation to its final location on the array where SAT for the UT took place.
John Young, Christopher Haniff, David Buscher, Tanish Satoor, Matthew Le Maitre, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Michelle Creech-Eakman, Ifan Payne, Magdalena Ridge Observatory (United States)
Interferometry provides the only practicable way to image satellites in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) with sub-meter resolution. The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI) is being funded by the US Air Force Research Laboratory to deploy the central three unit telescopes in order to demonstrate the sensitivity and baseline-bootstrapping capability needed to observe GEO targets. In parallel, we are investigating the resolution and imaging fidelity that is achievable with larger numbers of telescopes. We present imaging simulations with 7- and 10- telescope deployments of MROI, and characterize the impact of realistic spectral variations compared with a “gray” satellite.
John D. Monnier, Univ. of Michigan (United States); Michael Ireland, The Australian National Univ. (Australia); Stefan Kraus, Univ. of Exeter (United Kingdom); Almudena Alonso-Herrero, Ctr. de Astrobiología (Spain); Amy Bonsor, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Fabien Baron, Georgia State Univ. (United States); Amelia Bayo, Univ. de Valparaíso (Chile); Jean-Philippe Berger, Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (France); Tabetha Boyajian, Louisiana State Univ. (United States); Andrea Chiavassa, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (France); David Ciardi, Infrared Processing and Analysis Ctr. (United States); Michelle Creech-Eakman, Willem-Jan de Wit, European Southern Observatory (Chile); Ruobing Dong, The Univ. of Arizona (United States); Gespard Duchêne, Univ. of California, Berkeley (United States); Catherine Espaillat, Boston Univ. (United States); Alexandre Gallenne, European Southern Observatory (Chile); Poshak Gandhi, Univ. of Southampton (United Kingdom); Jean-Francois Gonzalez, Univ. de Lyon (France); Chris Haniff, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Sebastian Hoenig, Univ. of Southampton (United Kingdom); John Ilee, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Andrea Isella, Rice Univ. (United States); Eric Jensen, Swarthmore College (United States); Attila Juhasz, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Stephen Kane, Univ. of California, Riverside (United States); Makoto Kishimoto, Kyoto Sangyo Univ. (Japan); Wilhelm Kley, Eberhard Karls Univ. Tübingen (Germany); Quentin Kral, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Kaitlin Kratter, The Univ. of Arizona (United States); Lucas Labadie, Univ. zu Köln (Germany); Sylvestre Lacour, Observatoire de Paris (France); Greg Laughlin, Yale Univ. (United States); Jean-Baptiste Le Bouquin, Institut de Planétologie et d’Astrophysique de Grenoble (France); Ernest Michael, Univ. de Chile (Chile); Farzana Meru, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Rafael Millan-Gabet, GMTO Corp. (United States); Florentin Millour, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (France); Stefano Minardi, Institute of Applied Physics, Friedrich-Schiller-Univ. Jena (Germany); Alessandro Morbidelli, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (France); Chris Mordasini, Univ. Bern (Switzerland); Andreas Morlok, Westfälische Wilhelms-Univ. Münster (Germany); Dave Mozurkewich, Seabrook Engineering (United States); Richard Nelson, Queen Mary Univ. of London (United Kingdom); Johan Olofsson, Univ. de Valparaíso (Chile); Rene Oudmaijer, Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom); Chris Packham, The Univ. of Texas at San Antonio (United States); Claudia Paladini, Univ. Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium); Olja Panic, Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom); Romain Petrov, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (France); Benjamin Pope, New York Univ. (United States); Joerg-Uwe Pott, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Germany); Luis Henry Quiroga-Nuñez, Leiden Univ. (Netherlands); Cristina Ramos Almeida, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain); Sean Raymond, Lab. d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux (France); Zsolt Regaly, Konkoly Observatory (Hungary); Mark Reynolds, Univ. of Michigan (United States); Stephen Ridgway, National Optical Astronomy Observatory (United States); Stephen Rinehart, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. (United States); Michael Smith, Univ. of Kent (United Kingdom); Keivan Stassun, Vanderbilt Univ. (United States); Jean Surdej, Univ. de Liège (Belgium); Theo ten Brummelaar, Georgia State Univ. (United States); Konrad Tristram, European Southern Observatory (Chile); Neal Turner, Jet Propulsion Lab. (United States); Peter Tuthill, The Univ. of Sydney (Australia); Gerard T. van Belle, Lowell Observatory (United States); Gautum Vasisht, Jet Propulsion Lab. (United States); Gerd Weigelt, Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie (Germany); Edward Wishnow, Space Sciences Lab. (United States); Markus Wittkowski, European Southern Observatory (Germany); Sebastian Wolf, Christian-Albrechts-Univ. zu Kiel (Germany); John Young, Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Ming Zhao, The New York Times Co. (United States); Zhaohuan Zhu, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas (United States)
The Planet Formation Imager (PFI) is a near- and mid-infrared interferometer project with the driving science goal of imaging directly the key stages of planet formation, including the young proto-planets themselves. Here, we will present an update on the work of the Science Working Group (SWG), including new simulations of dust structures during the assembly phase of planet formation and quantitative detection efficiencies for accreting and non-accreting young exoplanets as a function of mass and age. These limits will be grounded in a new “baseline PFI” design consisting of nine 3m telescopes with a maximum baseline of 1.2km for which we estimate a H-band tracking limit of 14.4, L band point-source sensitivity of 18.5, and 150K surface brightness limit at N band. We will also discuss the state of technology development needed to make PFI more affordable, including progress towards new designs for inexpensive, small FOV, 3m-class telescopes.