Related papers: UNI Astronomical Observatory - OAUNI: First light
The southern Pierre Auger Observatory, presently under construction in Malarg"ue, Argentina, is nearing completion. The instrument is designed to measure extensive air-showers with energies ranging from $10^{18}$-$10^{20}$ eV and beyond. It…
Since 1990, the United Nations in cooperation with the European Space Agency is holding annually a workshop on basic space science for the benefit of the worldwide development of astronomy. These workshops have been held in countries of…
The Central Laser Facility is located near the middle of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina. It features a UV laser and optics that direct a beam of calibrated pulsed light into the sky. Light scattered from this beam produces tracks…
In the PANDA experiment's hypernuclear and hyperatom setup, a positioning system for the primary production target is required, which will be located in the center of the solenoid magnet, in ultra-high vacuum, and exposed to high radiation…
The JEM-EUSO (Joint Experiment Missions for Extreme Universe Space Observatory) program aims at the realization of the ultra-high energy cosmic ray (UHECR) observation using wide field of view fluorescence detectors in orbit. Ultra-violet…
We report on research carried out to improve teaching and student engagement in the introductory astronomy course at the University of Cape Town. This course is taken by a diverse range of students, including many from educationally…
Over the last few years, several interesting observations were obtained with the help of solar Adaptive Optics (AO). In this paper, few observations made using the solar AO are enlightened and briefly discussed. A list of disadvantages with…
Astronomers have come to recognize the benefits of photonics, often in combination with optical systems, in solving longstanding experimental problems in Earth-based astronomy. Here, we explore some of the recent advances made possible by…
Space astronomy in the last 40 years has largely been done from spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO) for which the technology is proven and delivery mechanisms are readily available. However, new opportunities are arising with the surge in…
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), NASA's next flagship science mission, follows in the tradition of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and other preceding great observatories. HWO will directly image and characterize Earth-like…
Astronomy is at a turning point in its history and in its relations with the Indigenous peoples who are the generational stewards of land where several of our main observatories are located. The controversy regarding the further development…
While the completion of the Pierre Auger Observatory (or simply ``Auger'') is still underway, the 5165 km^2.sr.yr integrated acceptance accumulated since the January 1st, 2004 is now significantly larger than what was gathered by the…
Neutrino telescopes are unrivaled tools to explore the Universe at its most extreme. The current generation of telescopes has shown that very high energy neutrinos are produced in the cosmos, even with hints of their possible origin, and…
The OPERA neutrino experiment in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) was designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in direct appearance mode in the $\nu_\mu\rightarrow\nu_\tau$ channel, the $\nu_\tau$…
This is a (very) personal attempt to summarize the status of neutrino astronomy: its scientific motivations, our understanding of natural water and ice as particle detectors and, finally, the detector technology.
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has recently concluded a set of engineering flights for Observatory performance evaluation. These in-flight opportunities are viewed as a first comprehensive assessment of the…
The world's largest cosmic-ray detector is nearing completion in the remote Pampas of Argentina. This instrument measures extensive air-showers with energies from ${10^{18}-10^{20}}$ eV and beyond. A surface detector array of area 3000…
The ultraviolet (UV) window has been largely unexplored through balloons for astronomy. We discuss here the development of a compact near-UV spectrograph with fiber optics input for balloon ights. It is a modified Czerny-Turner system built…
AMANDA is a high-energy neutrino telescope presently under construction at the geographical South Pole. In the Antarctic summer 1995/96, an array of 80 optical modules (OMs) arranged on 4 strings (AMANDA-B4) was deployed at depths between…
We describe a series of experiments done using a commercially available optical pumping apparatus that is currently being used in physics teaching labs at over one hundred universities. Our focus here is to provide an extensive and detailed…