Related papers: Status of the STUDIO UV balloon mission and platfo…
SPHERE+ is a proposed upgrade of the SPHERE instrument at the VLT, which is intended to boost the current performances of detection and characterization for exoplanets and disks. SPHERE+ will also serve as a demonstrator for the future…
The PLATO mission is scheduled for launch in December 2026. It is an ESA M-class mission designed to find small planets around bright stars via the transit technique. The light curves it obtains will be wonderful for other science goals,…
In the era of Extremely Large Telescopes, the current generation of 8-10m facilities are likely to remain competitive at ground-UV wavelengths for the foreseeable future. The Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph (CUBES) has been…
Following several recommendations presented by the Astrophysics Decadal Survey 2010 centered around the need to define "a future ultraviolet-optical space capability," on 2012 May 25, NASA issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking…
The COSmic Monopole Observer (COSMO) is an experiment to measure low-level spectral distortions in the isotropic component of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Deviations from a pure blackbody spectrum are expected at low level ($<$ 1…
Mesoscale model such as Meso-Nh have proven to be highly reliable in reproducing 3D maps of optical turbulence (see Refs. 1, 2, 3, 4) above mid-latitude astronomical sites. These last years ground-based astronomy has been looking towards…
The JEM-EUSO mission aims to explore the origin of the extreme energy cosmic rays (EECRs) through the observation of air-shower fluorescence light from space. The superwide-field telescope looks down from the International Space Station…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is a project to definitively map $\pi$ steradians of the local Universe. An array of CCD detectors used in drift-scan mode will digitally image the sky in five passbands to a limiting magnitude of $r'…
The POEMMA-Balloon with Radio (PBR) is a proposed payload to fly on a NASA Super Pressure Balloon (SPB). It will act as a pathfinder of the Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) detector. PBR will consist of an innovative…
SPIDER is a balloon-borne instrument designed to map the polarization of the millimeter-wave sky at large angular scales. SPIDER targets the B-mode signature of primordial gravitational waves in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), with a…
During certain times of the year at middle and low latitudes, winds in the upper stratosphere move in nearly the opposite direction than the wind in the lower stratosphere. Here we present a method for maintaining a high-altitude balloon…
The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) is a wide-field experiment designed to investigate the optical transient and variable sky on time scales from minutes to years. PTF uses the CFH12k mosaic camera, with a field of view of 7.9 deg^2 and a…
ESPRESSO (Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) is a VLT ultra-stable high resolution spectrograph installed at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile at the end of 2017 and that started regular…
We present the results of a study along with a first prototype of a high precision system (? 1 arcsec) for pointing and tracking light (near-infrared) telescopes on board stratospheric balloons. Such a system is essentially composed by a…
We present a new instrument, the "Stellar Double Coronagraph" (SDC), a flexible coronagraphic platform. Designed for Palomar Observatory's 200" Hale telescope, its two focal and pupil planes allow for a number of different observing…
The issues related to moving elements in space and instruments working in broader wavelength ranges lead to a need for robust polarimeters, efficient on a wide spectral domain, and adapted to space conditions. As part of the UVMag…
The PLATO space mission is designed to detect telluric planets in the habitable zone of solar type stars, and simultaneously characterise the host star using ultra high precision photometry. The photometry will be performed on board using…
Virtual Reality (VR) technology has been subject to a rapid democratization in recent years, driven in large by the entertainment industry, and epitomized by the emergence of consumer-grade, plug-and-play, room-scale VR devices. To explore…
I review the development of UV and EUV astronomy, covering the spectral range from 5 to 300 nm, with emphasis on sky surveys for discrete sources. I discuss studies which resulted in lists of sources observed by imaging and deliberately…
The JEM-EUSO program aims at detecting Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) by observing the fluorescence light produced by extensive air showers (EAS) in the Earth's atmosphere. Within this program, a new generation of missions is being…