IONA Telescope
Received from the Air Force Research Lab in Albuquerque, NM on December 10, 2018, the IONA Telescope is built from a past project titled the Multi-Mission Deployable Optical System (MDOS). The MDOS was outfitted to move quickly and accurately to track low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites. Prior to its trip to the University of Arizona for repurposing, it has remained untouched for most of the past decade.
The IONA Telescope project intends to utilize as much as possible from the original system, while placing a heavier importance on the easily transportable nature.
The purpose of the project is to re-outfit and update the current telescope and instruments to create an innovative test-bed to be used in support of artificial satellite observation. The system mounts were originally created to track LEO satellites, and therefore have the ability to track almost any object in the night sky without mechanical constraints.
High Temporal Imaging at the Kuiper 61” Telescope
The HTI Project uses orthogonal polarization modes comparisons to give detailed information on the makeup of GEO-synchronous satellites without the need for high resolution imaging or adaptive optics. The project was fully built in the lab and was tested for over 10 nights on the 61” telescope on Mount Bigelow in Tucson, AZ.
The project uses advanced camera sensors from Andor Technology which are synched to milliseconds of accuracy to allow accurate polarization state comparisons to occur. The detectors are low weight, low noise, and water cooled to meet the specific requirements of this instrument.
The Star Seeking Imager
The Star Seeking Imager is a year-long project with an intent to design and create a device to support photographers in creating high-quality astrophotographs in a convenient, low-cost manner. There are three parts to this project; the Device, the Software, and the App. The device is a physical mechanism to hold and position a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera and a long focal length lens controlled by a smart phone app.
The software is used primarily to connect the device to the phone as well as calculate the coordinates and precise movements needed to find a subject. Finally, the phone application is used to simplify the user control. The app will allow the user to send commands to move the camera, perform calibrations, and provide a database of subjects for the user to choose from.
The Citizen CATE Project
The total solar eclipse will take place August 21, 2017. The total time the eclipse will take to pass over the continent will be around 90 minutes, 2.5 minutes at each location. The plan for the Citizen CATE experiment is to have citizen volunteers, amateur astronomers, and scientists operating small aperture telescopes that will be set up along the path of the eclipse (61 sites). While the totality in each spot will only last for a short amount of time, a total of 90 minutes of data will be recorded.
To simplify use for the astronomers at each site, this project will provide a fully packaged system. This system includes a small ametuer telescope, Grasshopper3 sensor, and control software. To accurately image the the corona a high dynamic range imaging process was developed specfically for this project.