Seminars

Davide Ricci

INAF/OAR (Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma)

July 16th, 11:30, Aula Jappelli (INAF/OAPD)

A new astronomical instrument born from a web page

Remote observations can benefit from web-based tools. For astronomers, this consists in interacting with a generic observatory using a browser. I used this approach to manage the components of the 1m-class OARPAF observatory, located in Northern Italy: the telescope, the dome, and its CCD camera. Best solutions have been adapted "in real time" to the much more complicated SHARK-NIR instrument at LBT.

Back and forth, this led to a "Mini-Grant RSN5" to explore the best practices for webtools in the field of instrument control and quick-look. And to test a wider range of use cases, I took this opportunity to upgrade OARPAF, by building a three-headed instrument with the precious help of INAF colleagues.

This new instrument not only improves the imaging mode with a guiding camera and a tip-tilt lens for image stabilization up to 10Hz, but also, using a mode selector, allows now long-slit spectroscopy and optical fiber ́echelle spectroscopy, putting barely used material back into operation.

First tests are ongoing these days, and use cases span from science (exoplanetary transits, gravitationally lensed quasars) to third mission projects (a high school in Japan observing globular clusters, a favela project in Rio de Janeiro), in the overall effort of a recent PRIN, called NOCTIS, which aims to build a network of small telescopes. 

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Join Zoom Meeting

https://unipd.zoom.us/j/5828340760?pwd=6jmmfQkNz1qXnnOzaEWzo9kuEunbhb.1 

Meeting ID: 582 834 0760

Passcode: Npsvx4