Related papers: Some problems of developing astrophysical equipmen…
Various aspects of the construction, operation and calibration of the recently completed deep-sea ANTARES neutrino telescope are described. Some first results obtained with a partial five line configuration are presented, including depth…
High-contrast imaging and spectroscopy provide unique constraints for exoplanet formation models as well as for planetary atmosphere models. Instrumentation techniques in this field have greatly improved over the last two decades, with the…
We have created a new autonomous laser-guide-star adaptive-optics (AO) instrument on the 60-inch (1.5-m) telescope at Palomar Observatory called Robo-AO. The instrument enables diffraction-limited resolution observing in the visible and…
Hard X-/soft Gamma-ray astronomy (> 100 keV) is a crucial field for the study of important astrophysical phenomena such as the 511 keV positron annihilation line in the Galactic center region and its origin, gamma-ray bursts, soft gamma-ray…
It is developed a very complex system (hardware/software) to detect luminosity variations connected with the discovery of new planets outside the Solar System. Traditional imaging approaches are very demanding in terms of computing time;…
We present ZEBRA, the Zurich Extragalactic Bayesian Redshift Analyzer. The current version of ZEBRA combines and extends several of the classical approaches to produce accurate photometric redshifts down to faint magnitudes. In particular,…
Over the past decade, time-domain astronomy in optical bands has developed rapidly with the operations of some wide-field survey facilities. However, most of these surveys are conducted with only a single band, and simultaneous color…
The Big Fringe Telescope (BFT) is a facility concept under development for a next-generation, kilometer-scale optical interferometer. Observations over the past two decades from routinely operational facilities such as CHARA and VLTI have…
Directly imaging Earth-like exoplanets (``exoEarths'') with a coronagraph instrument on a space telescope requires a stable wavefront with optical path differences limited to tens of picometers RMS during exposure times of a few hours.…
Focus accuracy affects the quality of the astronomical observations. Auto-focusing is necessary for imaging systems designed for astronomical observations. The automatic focus system searches for the best focus position by using a proposed…
Adaptive optics is a technique mostly used on large telescopes. It turns out to be challenging for smaller telescopes (0.5~2m) due to the small isoplanatic angle, small subapertures and high correction speeds needed at visible wavelengths,…
Astronomical instrumentation is most of the time faced with challenging requirements in terms of sensitivity, stability, complexity, etc., and therefore leads to high performance developments that at first sight appear to be suitable only…
The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer is a NASA-funded nulling and imaging instrument designed to coherently combine the two 8.4-m primary mirrors of the LBT for high-sensitivity, high-contrast, and high-resolution infrared imaging…
This paper describes a concept for the high-accuracy absolute calibration of the instrumental polarization introduced by the primary mirror of a large-aperture telescope. This procedure requires a small aperture with polarization…
The sodium laser guide star adaptive optics system ALFA, which is installed at the Calar Alto 3.5-m telescope, has been undergoing an intensive optimisation phase. Observations using natural guide stars that are presented in this paper,…
The ALFA laser subsystem uses a 4 watt continuous wave laser beam to produce an artificial guide star in the mesospheric sodium layer as a reference for wavefront sensing. In this article we describe the system design, focusing on the…
The key to optimizing spatial resolution in a state-of-the-art scanning transmission electron microscope is the ability to precisely measure and correct for electron optical aberrations of the probe-forming lenses. Several diagnostic…
The prototype Robo-AO system at the Palomar Observatory 1.5-m telescope is the world's first fully automated laser adaptive optics instrument. Scientific operations commenced in June 2012 and more than 12,000 observations have since been…
The U.S. Naval Observatory Robotic Astrometric Telescope (URAT) project aims at a highly accurate (5 mas), ground-based, all-sky survey. Requirements are presented for the optics and telescope for this 0.85 m aperture, 4.5 degree diameter…
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will be a transformative experiment for gravitational wave astronomy, and, as such, it will offer unique opportunities to address many key astrophysical questions in a completely novel way. The…