Related papers: The SCORPIO focal reducer
ESPI has been proposed for direct imaging and spectral analysis of giant planets orbiting solar-type stars. ESPI extends the concept suggested by Nisenson and Papaliolios (2001) for a square aperture apodized telescope that has sufficient…
The RISTRETTO project is aiming to build an instrument that will detect the reflected light from close-by exoplanet. It is a two stage instrument: An extreme AO system in the visible, followed by a seven spaxel single mode High resolution…
We describe the advantages of using Integral Field Spectroscopy to observe deep fields of galaxy. The VIMOS Integral Field Unit is particularly suitable for this kind of studies thanks to its large field-of-view (~ 1 arcmin^2). After a…
A suite of science instruments is critical to any high contrast imaging facility, as it defines the science capabilities and observing modes available. SCExAO uses a modular approach which allows for state-of-the-art visitor modules to be…
CoRoT photometric measurements of asteroseismic targets need complementary ground-based spectroscopic observations. We are using the planet-hunter HARPS spectrograph attached to the 3.6m-ESO telescope in the framework of two consecutive…
We have designed and constructed a second-generation version of the Dispersed Fourier Transform Spectrograph, or dFTS. This instrument combines a spectral interferometer with a dispersive spectrograph to provide high-accuracy,…
RISTRETTO is the evolution of the original idea of coupling the VLT instruments SPHERE and ESPRESSO, aiming at High Dispersion Coronagraphy. RISTRETTO is a visitor instrument that should enable the characterization of the atmospheres of…
Orbital monitoring of exoplanetary and stellar systems is fundamental for analysing their architecture, dynamical stability and evolution, and mechanisms of formation. Current high-contrast extreme-adaptive optics imagers like SPHERE, GPI,…
We present the new speckle camera PISCO2 made in 2010-2012, for the 76-cm refractor of C\^ote d'Azur Observatory. It is a focal instrument dedicated to the observation of visual binary stars using high angular resolution speckle…
Several projects in radioastronomy plan to use large static cylindrical reflectors with an extended lobe sampling a sector of the rotating sky. This study provides the exact mathematical expression of the transit time of a celestial object…
Clio is an adaptive-optics camera mounted on the 6.5 meter MMT optimized for diffraction-limited L' and M-band imaging over a ~15'' field. The instrument was designed from the ground up with a large well-depth, fast readout thermal infrared…
We propose a new concept of pupil motion sensor for astronomical adaptive optics systems and present experimental results obtained during the first laboratory validation of this concept. Pupil motion is an important issue in the case of…
A modified version of the folded aplanatic Gregory telescope equipped with a spherical two-lens corrector is proposed for observations requiring a high signal-to-noise ratio. The basic telescope model has an aperture of 400 mm (f/3.0), its…
We present new on-sky results for the Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics imager (SCExAO) verifying and quantifying the contrast gain enabled by key components: the closed-loop coronagraphic low-order wavefront sensor (CLOWFS) and…
We report results from numerical simulations assessing astrometry measurements with the Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics Relay for ELT Observations (MORFEO) instrument on the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Using the Advanced Exposure Time…
The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) instrument is a multipurpose high-contrast imaging platform designed for the discovery and detailed characterization of exoplanetary systems and serves as a testbed for high-contrast…
We describe a new concept for a MEMS-based active spatial filter for astronomical spectroscopy. The goal of this device is to allow the use of a diffraction-limited spectrometer on a seeing limited observation at improved throughput over a…
The Rapid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) experiment is a spatially distributed system of autonomous robotic telescopes that is designed to monitor the sky for optical transients. The core of the system is composed of two telescope…
The Astrophysics of microquasars - galactic miniatures of the far distant quasars - has become one of the most active fields of modern Astronomy in recent years. Here I review the astronomical methods used for the investigation of these…
We present a detailed spectroscopic study of a sample of bright, mostly cool, stars observed with the Short-Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), which enables the accurate determination of the stellar…