Related papers: A New High Contrast Imaging Program at Palomar Obs…

The spectroscopy of faint planetary-mass companions to nearby stars is one of the main challenges that new-generation high-contrast spectro-imagers are going to face. In a previous work we presented a long slit coronagraph (LSC), for which…

A new, inexpensive polarimetric unit has been constructed for the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO) 1.8-m Plaskett telescope. It is implemented as a plug-in module for the telescope's existing Cassegrain spectrograph, and enables…

For the technology development of the mission EXCEDE (EXoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer) - a 0.7 m telescope equipped with a Phase-Induced Amplitude Apodization Coronagraph (PIAA-C) and a 2000-element MEMS deformable…

The vortex coronagraph is one of the most promising coronagraphs for high contrast imaging because of its simplicity, small inner working angle, high throughput, and clear off-axis discovery space. However, as with most coronagraphs,…

Future high-contrast imaging spectroscopy with a large segmented telescope will be able to detect atmospheric molecules of Earth-like planets around G- or K-type main-sequence stars. Increasing the number of target planets will require a…

The vortex coronagraph is an optical instrument that precisely removes on-axis starlight allowing for high contrast imaging at small angular separation from the star, thereby providing a crucial capability for direct detection and…

The facility adaptive optics of the Subaru Telescope AO188 recently received some long-awaited upgrades: a new 3224-actuator deformable mirror (DM) from ALPAO (hence the name change to AO3000 or AO3k), an upgraded GPU-based real-time…

In principle, suppression of on-axis stellar light by a coronagraph is easier on an unobscured aperture telescope than on one with an obscured aperture. Recent designs such as the apodized pupil Lyot coronagraph, the `band-limited' Lyot…

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is a next-generation, facility instrument currently being commissioned at the Gemini South observatory. GPI combines an extreme adaptive optics system and integral field spectrograph (IFS) with an…

Direct exoplanet detection is limited by speckle noise in the point spread function (PSF) of the central star. This noise can be reduced by subtracting PSF images obtained simultaneously in adjacent narrow spectral bands using a…

Imaging exo-Earths is an exciting but challenging task because of the 10^-10 contrast ratio between these planets and their host star at separations narrower than 100 mas. Large segmented aperture space telescopes enable the sensitivity…

We demonstrate the versatility of a dual imaging polarimeter working in tandem with a Lyot coronagraph and Adaptive Optics to suppress the highly static speckle noise pattern--the greatest hindrance to ground-based direct imaging of planets…

A prototype of a low cost Adaptive Optics (AO) system has been developed at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (CSIC) and tested at the 2.2m telescope of the Calar Alto observatory. We present here the status of the project, which…

Stellar spectropolarimetry is a relatively new remote sensing tool for exploring stellar atmospheres and circumstellar environments. We present the results of our HiVIS survey and a multi-wavelength ESPaDOnS follow-up campaign showing…

The evanescent wave coronagraph uses the principle of frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR) to suppress the light coming from the star and study its close environment. Its focal plane mask is composed of a lens and a prism placed in…

The direct imaging of potentially habitable Exoplanets is one prime science case for the next generation of high contrast imaging instruments on ground-based extremely large telescopes. To reach this demanding science goal, the instruments…

Radial velocity instruments require high spectral resolution and extreme thermo-mecanical stability, even more difficult to achieve in near-infra red (NIR) where the spectrograph has to be cooled down. For a seeing-limited spectrograph, the…

Stellar coronagraphs rely on deformable mirrors (DMs) to correct wavefront errors and create high contrast images. Imperfect control of the DM limits the achievable contrast and, therefore, the DM control electronics must provide fine…

In the field of planet and proto-planetary disk detection, achieving high angular resolution and high dynamic range is a necessity. Coronography coupled with adaptive optics on Hubble Space Telescope is a way to get both good spatial…

The MagAO-X instrument is a new extreme adaptive optics system for high-contrast imaging at visible and near-infrared wavelengths on the Magellan Clay Telescope. A central component of this system is a 2040-actuator microelectromechanical…