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Super-LOTIS
Super-LOTIS is the second incarnation of the Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System, located at the Steward Observatory on Kitt Peak. It is an automated telescope designed to slew very rapidly to the location of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), to enable the simultaneous measurement of optical counterparts. GRBs can occur anywhere in the sky, fade very quickly, and were initially poorly localized, so the original LOTIS needed very rapid slewing (less than 10 sec) and an extremely wide field of view (greater than 15 degrees). However, this wide field of view meant it could not see faint sources, and only the brightest GRB afterglows could be studied. Later satellites such as HETE-2, and BATSE detector of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, delivered much more accurate GRB coordinates in real-time. This enabled the construction of Super-LOTIS, based upon a Boller and Chivens 0.6 meter telescope, with a much smaller field of view (originally 51' by 51'), but much deeper imaging. After a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System
The Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System, or LOTIS, is an automated telescope designed to slew very rapidly to the location of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), to enable the simultaneous measurement of optical counterparts. Since GRBs can occur anywhere in the sky, are often poorly localized, and fade very quickly, this implies very rapid slewing (less than 10 sec) and a wide field of view (greater than 15 degrees). To achieve the needed response time, LOTIS was fully automated and connected via Internet socket to the Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network. This network analyzes telemetry from satellite such as HETE-2 and Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission and delivers GRB coordinate information in real-time. The optics were built from 4 commercial tele-photo lenses of 11 cm aperture, with custom 2048 X 2048 CCD cameras, and could view a 17.6 X 17.6 degree field. LOTIS started routine operation in October 1996, with a limiting magnitude Mv≈11.5 . In March 1998 it was upgraded wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steward Observatory
Steward Observatory is the research arm of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona (UArizona). Its offices are located on the UArizona campus in Tucson, Arizona (US). Established in 1916, the first telescope and building were formally dedicated on April 23, 1923. It now operates, or is a partner in telescopes at five mountain-top locations in Arizona, one in New Mexico, one in Hawaii, and one in Chile. It has provided instruments for three different space telescopes and numerous terrestrial ones. Steward also has one of the few facilities in the world that can cast and figure the very large primary mirrors used in telescopes built in the early 21st century. History Steward Observatory owes its existence to the efforts of American astronomer and dendrochronologist Andrew Ellicott Douglass. In 1906, Douglass accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Physics and Geography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Almost immediately upon his arrival ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robotic Telescopes
A robotic telescope is an astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies ... telescope and detector system that makes observations without the intervention of a human. In astronomical disciplines, a telescope qualifies as robotic if it makes those observations without being operated by a human, even if a human has to initiate the observations at the beginning of the night or end them in the morning. It may have software agents using artificial intelligence that assist in various ways such as automatic scheduling. A robotic telescope is distinct from a remote telescope, though an instrument can be both robotic and remote. By 2004, robotic observations accounted for an overwhelming percentage of the published scientific information on asteroid orbits and discoveries, var ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kitt Peak
Kitt Peak ( ood, Ioligam) is a mountain in the U.S. state of Arizona, and at is the highest point in the Quinlan Mountains. It is the location of the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The radio telescope at the observatory is one of ten dishes comprising the Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope. The peak was named in English by county surveyor George J. Roskruge for his sister, Phillippa, who was the wife of William F. Kitt. On his 1893 Pima County Survey map, Roskruge spelled the name 'Kits'. At the request of the wife of George F. Kitt, the spelling was changed by decision in 1930. Kitt Peak is the second-highest peak on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, and as such is the second-most sacred after Baboquivari Peak. Near the summit is I'itoi's Garden, the summer residence of the nation's elder brother deity. The name Ioligam means "red stick" in reference to the abundance of manzanita Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus ''Arctostaphylos''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe distant objects, the word ''telescope'' now refers to a wide range of instruments capable of detecting different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and in some cases other types of detectors. The first known practical telescopes were refracting telescopes with glass lenses and were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century. They were used for both terrestrial applications and astronomy. The reflecting telescope, which uses mirrors to collect and focus light, was invented within a few decades of the first refracting telescope. In the 20th century, many new types of telescopes were invented, including radio telescopes in the 1930s and infrared telescopes in the 1960s. Etymology The word ''telescope'' was coin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamma-ray Burst
In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten milliseconds to several hours. After an initial flash of gamma rays, a longer-lived "afterglow" is usually emitted at longer wavelengths (X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, microwave and radio). The intense radiation of most observed GRBs is thought to be released during a supernova or superluminous supernova as a high-mass star implodes to form a neutron star or a black hole. A subclass of GRBs appear to originate from the merger of binary neutron stars. The sources of most GRBs are billions of light years away from Earth, implying that the explosions are both extremely energetic (a typical burst releases as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun will in its entire 10-billion-year lifetime) and extremely rare (a few per galaxy per milli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Field Of View
The field of view (FoV) is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment. In the case of optical instruments or sensors it is a solid angle through which a detector is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. Humans and animals In the context of human and primate vision, the term "field of view" is typically only used in the sense of a restriction to what is visible by external apparatus, like when wearing spectacles or virtual reality goggles. Note that eye movements are allowed in the definition but do not change the field of view when understood this way. If the analogy of the eye's retina working as a sensor is drawn upon, the corresponding concept in human (and much of animal vision) is the visual field. It is defined as "the number of degrees of visual angle during stable fixation of the eyes".Strasburger, Hans; Pöppel, Ernst (2002). Visual Field. In G. Adelman & B.H. Smith (Eds): ''Encyclopedia of Neuroscience''; 3rd edition, on CD-ROM. El ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HETE-2
High Energy Transient Explorer 2 (HETE-2; also known as Explorer 79) was a NASA astronomical satellite with international participation (mainly Japan and France). The satellite bus for the first HETE-1 was designed and built by AeroAstro, Inc. of Herndon, Virginia and was lost during launch on 4 November 1996; the replacement satellite, HETE-2 was built by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) based on the original HETE design. International participation The PI Institution at MIT is the headquarters for the HETE-2 Team; however, team members in science, instrument, and engineering are global. Participating institutions with HETE-2 team members include the following: *MIT, Center for Space Research (MIT/CSR) in Cambridge, Massachusetts — main investigator for HETE-2; George Ricker. MIT built and tested the spacecraft bus, the satellite control software, the primary ground station at Kwajalein Atoll, and the burst alert stations in the Galápagos, Ascension, Gabon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was a space observatory detecting photons with energies from 20 k eV to 30 GeV, in Earth orbit from 1991 to 2000. The observatory featured four main telescopes in one spacecraft, covering X-rays and gamma rays, including various specialized sub-instruments and detectors. Following 14 years of effort, the observatory was launched from Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' during STS-37 on April 5, 1991, and operated until its deorbit on June 4, 2000. It was deployed in low Earth orbit at to avoid the Van Allen radiation belt. It was the heaviest astrophysical payload ever flown at that time at . Costing $617 million, the CGRO was part of NASA's " Great Observatories" series, along with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. It was the second of the series to be launched into space, following the Hubble Space Telescope. The CGRO was named after Arthur Compton, an American physicis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boller And Chivens
Boller and Chivens was an American manufacturer of high-quality telescopes and spectrographs headquartered in South Pasadena, California. History Founded about 1946 by Harry Berthold Boller (1915-1997) and Clyde Cuthbertson Chivens (1915-2008). the company was acquired in 1965 by Perkin-Elmer. In the 1950s, Boller and Chivens collaborated with Perkin-Elmer to develop and manufacture the large-aperture Baker-Nunn satellite tracking camera for the United States Vanguard space satellite program. In culture A 41-cm (16-inch) Boller and Chivens Cassegrain reflector originally housed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Oak Ridge Observatory in Massachusetts is available for public use at the National Air and Space Museum's Public Observatory Project on the National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission
Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, previously called the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, is a NASA three-telescope space observatory for studying gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and monitoring the afterglow in X-ray, and UV/Visible light at the location of a burst. It was launched on 20 November 2004, aboard a Delta II launch vehicle. Headed by principal investigator Neil Gehrels until his death in February 2017, the mission was developed in a joint partnership between Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and an international consortium from the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy. The mission is operated by Pennsylvania State University as part of NASA's Medium Explorer program (MIDEX). The burst detection rate is 100 per year, with a sensitivity ~3 times fainter than the BATSE detector aboard the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. The Swift mission was launched with a nominal on-orbit lifetime of two years. Swift is a NASA MIDEX (medium-class Explorer) mission. It was the third to be lau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gamma-ray Burst Coordinates Network
The gamma-ray burst coordinates network (GCN) is a system that distributes information about the location of a gamma-ray burst (GRB), called ''notices'', when a burst is detected by various spacecraft. The GCN also automatically receives and distributes messages, called ''circulars'', about follow-up observations to interested individuals and institutions. Follow-up observations may be made by ground-based and space-based optical, radio, and X-ray observatories. GCN has its origins in the BATSE coordinates distribution network (BACODINE). The Burst And Transient Source Experiment ( BATSE) was a scientific instrument on the ''Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory'' (CGRO), and BACODINE monitored the BATSE real-time telemetry from CGRO. The first function of BACODINE was calculating the right ascension (RA) and declination (dec) locations for GRBs that it detected, and distributing those locations to sites around the world in real-time. Since the de-orbiting of the CGRO, this function of BA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
