From Caltech/ANU: “Gattini IR”

10.18.2018

The new Gattini-IR telescope, now moving into full operation. Credit ANU-Caltech

Gattini-IR is a near-IR survey telescope newly-commissioned at Palomar Observatory in September 2018. Though it only has an aperture of 30 cm, it boasts a 25 sq deg field of view — 40 times larger than any other existing infrared telescope. Palomar Gattini-IR is designed to survey the entire accessible sky (20,000 sq deg) to 16.4 AB mag (J band) every night. We anticipate this facility will be a powerful tool for monitoring the variability of nearby brown dwarfs and asymptotic giant branch stars, detecting electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave detections, and discovering stellar mergers and Galactic novae. Gattini-IR is a pathfinder for more advanced systems to eventually be constructed at the polar sites of the South Pole, Antarctica and near Eureka on Ellesmere Island, Canada, which will enable observations out to K band. For more details see Moore et al. (2016)

Unveiling the dynamic infrared sky with Gattini-IR

While optical and radio transient surveys have enjoyed a renaissance over the past decade, the dynamic infrared sky remains virtually unexplored. The infrared is a powerful tool for probing transient events in dusty regions that have high optical extinction, and for detecting the coolest of stars that are bright only at these wavelengths. The fundamental roadblocks in studying the infrared time-domain have been the overwhelmingly bright sky background (250 times brighter than optical) and the narrow field-of-view of infrared cameras (largest is 0.6 sq deg). To begin to address these challenges and open a new observational window in the infrared, we present Palomar Gattini-IR: a 25 sq degree, 300mm aperture, infrared telescope at Palomar Observatory that surveys the entire accessible sky (20,000 sq deg) to a depth of 16.4 AB mag (J band, 1.25μm) every night. Palomar Gattini-IR is wider in area than every existing infrared camera by more than a factor of 40 and is able to survey large areas of sky multiple times. We anticipate the potential for otherwise infeasible discoveries, including, for example, the elusive electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave detections. With dedicated hardware in hand, and a F/1.44 telescope available commercially and cost-effectively, Palomar Gattini-IR will be on-sky in early 2017 and will survey the entire accessible sky every night for two years. We present an overview of the pathfinder Palomar Gattini-IR project, including the ambitious goal of sub-pixel imaging and ramifications of this goal on the opto-mechanical design and data reduction software. Palomar Gattini-IR will pave the way for a dual hemisphere, infrared-optimized, ultra-wide field high cadence machine called Turbo Gattini-IR. To take advantage of the low sky background at 2.5 μm, two identical systems will be located at the polar sites of the South Pole, Antarctica and near Eureka on Ellesmere Island, Canada. Turbo Gattini-IR will survey 15,000 sq. degrees to a depth of 20AB, the same depth of the VISTA VHS survey, every 2 hours with a survey efficiency of 97%.

Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 9906, id. 99062C 12 pp. (2016).

See the full article here .

five-ways-keep-your-child-safe-school-shootings
Please help promote STEM in your local schools.

Stem Education Coalition

The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering. Its 124-acre (50 ha) primary campus is located approximately 11 mi (18 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. “The mission of the California Institute of Technology is to expand human knowledge and benefit society through research integrated with education. We investigate the most challenging, fundamental problems in science and technology in a singularly collegial, interdisciplinary atmosphere, while educating outstanding students to become creative members of society.”

Caltech campus