Measurement of the alignment error of the telescope mirrors is an essential and demanding task in the telescope assembly phase. One method is to examine the aberration over the whole telescope field of view from sky images with stars, but there are complicated issues in the case of large telescopes. The focal plane of the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) 6.5-m telescope has a large diameter of 546mm and a field curvature. Therefore, many imaging sensors must be arrayed on the curved focal plane. We propose a concept of a screen camera for the TAO 6.5-m telescope. To lower the cost, we accept the degradation of the spatial resolution up to ∼2 arcseconds and the decrease in optical throughput. This system consists of a transparent screen, a camera lens, and a CMOS sensor, and it obtains sky images through the telescope on the screen. The transparent spherical screen with one side sanded is placed at the telescope focal plane. A CMOS sensor with a commercially available camera lens and filters is placed at about 1.5 meters from the screen and captures the starry sky on the screen. The pixel scale on the CMOS sensor is calculated to be 0.31 arcseconds, and the estimated limiting magnitude is about 13 in a 10-second exposure at a 10σ level. After the telescope mirror alignment, the screen camera will provide focused sky images in the whole field of view, 25 arcminutes diameter.
The University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO) is a project to build and operate a 6.5m telescope at the summit of Co. Chajnantor (5640 m.a.s.l). This is promoted by the Institute of Astronomy, School of Science, the University of Tokyo in collaboration with many institutes and universities in Japan and Chile. The site construction started in 2018 and was successfully completed by April 2024. An operation support building and an enclosure have already been constructed and are operational at the summit. Electricity is supplied by two generators installed in the operations building. The telescope mount and mirrors have already completed their tests in Japan and the U.S., respectively. They were transported to Chile and wait for the assembly. The first light instruments, NICE and MIMIZUKU, are undergoing final adjustment in Japan and will be transported to Chile as the telescope assembly progresses. The near-infrared instrument SWIMS has completed its open use on the Subaru telescope and returned back to Japan in Aug. 2023 for upgrading for TAO. The near-infrared spectrograph TARdYS, which is being developed in collaboration with Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, is also making progress in the development of its optics and detectors. In addition to these, the development of a new optical instrument has been started this year. Allocation of the observing time was also determined. TAO will use approximately 45% of its scientific observation time as project time, 35% as Japan open time for the Japanese community, and 10% as Chilean time for the Chilean community. 5-15% will be provided as paid observing time.
The PRime-focus Infrared Microlensing Experiments (PRIME) camera is part of the joint NASA-JAXA project supporting the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope engineering and science studies. It is installed on the 1.8m PRIME telescope with a ≈1.5 square degree FOV dedicated to the project. The instrument is equipped with multiple broad band and narrow band filters between 0.9μm to 1.8μm. The instrument is installed at the South African Astronomical Observatory and has been in continuous operation since October 2022. PRIME is currently surveying the Galactic bulge for microlensing events, GW and GRB studies and other science objectives, in advance of the Roman Space Telescope (RST) mission. After 1.5 years of on-sky operation, we present the use, performance and lessons learned operating RST’s yield demonstration lot H4RG-10 detectors as part of the PRIME camera based on the data processing and analysis tools that we have developed. With the large field of view in the near infrared bands this instrument is a powerful tool in the Southern hemisphere and a compliment to the instruments in the North and in the visible.
KEYWORDS: Tunable filters, Feedback control, Control systems, Digital signal processing, Electronic filtering, Repetition frequency, Signal processing, Mirrors
In ground-based mid-infrared observations the background radiation must be removed. Chopping is a background removal method requiring fast switching of the observation field. For MIMIZUKU, the mid-infrared instrument for the TAO telescope, we have developed a cold chopper which switches the observing field by tilting a movable mirror inside MIMIZUKU, instead of tilting the large secondary mirror.
We require a short transition time, sufficient amplitude, high frequency and steadyness for observation in the chopper movement.
With Repetitive Control we significantly increase performance by iteratively improving a feedforward trajectory and continously adapting to changes in the nonlinear dynamics.
This allows for much shorter transition time (<30 ms) and more freedom in the design of a feedback controller. Furthermore, repetitive disturbances originating from the cryo-cooler can be countered thus improving stability on sky.
Controller design, stabilisation, choice of reference trajectory, real-time computability and performance trade-offs are subjects in this research.
MIMIZUKU, the mid-infrared instrument for the 6.5-m telescope at the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory (TAO), employs a cold chopper to perform chopping, which tilts a mirror placed on the internal cold optics at about 30 K. The mirror rotates around two orthogonal axes, and its tilt angle is controlled by the balance between the restoring force of the flexural pivots and the magnetic force driven by the coils in the system. In this study, we developed a final-product model of the chopper and tested its onboard performance in MIMIZUKU. This experiment showed that the mirror could be operated with a stability of 3.83×10−4 and 3.29×10−4 degrees, and a transition time of 31.2 and 32.2 milliseconds for each rotation, when both rotations were driven at 5 Hz with an amplitude of 0.59 degrees, satisfying the performance requirements.
The PRime-focus Infrared Microlensing Experiment (PRIME) camera is part of the joint NASA-JAXA project in support of the spaceflight Roman Space Telescope project development. It is designed to accommodate the needs of the large-scale survey of the microlensing events in the Galactic bulge. The camera is placed in the prime focus of the 1.8-m telescope dedicated to this project. With four large-format infrared detectors, the instrument covers a field of view about 1.3 square degrees. Over the few years preceding and during the operations of the Roman Space Telescope, the instrument will be used for continuous monitoring of selected fields in the Galactic bulge for microlensing events and a number of other science programs of the consortium.
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