Download 10 12 18 Invitation List

LIGHT BUCKET ASTRONOMY CONFERENCE
Technology Developments and Research Programs
31 December 2010 - 2 January 2011
Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Headquarters, Waimea, Big Island of Hawaii
Co-Chairs: Russ Genet (Calif. Polytechnic State Univ.), and Bruce Holenstein (Gravic, Inc.)
Local Hosts: Josh Walawender (Univ. of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy), and Sarah Gajardhar (CFHT)
Mauna Loa/Mauna Kea pre-conference tours 29/30 December, Volcanoes National Park post-conference tour 3 January
Conference Goals
The goals of the conference are two fold. First, to explore how new technologies can be applied
to developing lightweight, low cost, meter class “light bucket” telescopes and their
instrumentation. Second, to describe the scientific research programs that would most benefit
from telescopes which are so low in initial and operational cost that entire telescopes or even
arrays of telescopes can be dedicated to specific research programs.
What is light bucket astronomy?
Jacquelyn Mitton, in the Cambridge Dictionary of Astronomy (2001), defines a light bucket as “A
colloquial expression for a flux collector.” She defines a flux collector, in turn, as “A telescope
designed solely to collect radiation in order to measure its intensity or to carry out spectral
analysis,” mentioning that, “No attempt is made to form an image so a flux collector can have a
more crudely figured reflective surface than a conventional telescope.” We have extended
Mitton’s light bucket definition to include photometric CCD “imaging” with low quality, low cost
optics (typically one wave or less as opposed to quarter wave or better optics).
Light bucket telescopes excel in comparison with smaller aperture, more expensive, diffractionlimited telescopes when the sky background is a small or nearly negligible source of noise. This
situation can occur when: (1) the object being observed is very bright, (2) the integration times
are very short and hence photon arrival noise becomes important, (3) scintillation noise becomes
a dominant noise source, (4) the bandwidth is very narrow or the light is spread out as in
spectroscopy resulting in significant photon arrival noise, or (5) noise from the detector is
dominant, as it can be in the near infrared.
Science programs well suited for light bucket astronomy include: many high speed phenomena,
including lunar and asteroid occultations; fast cadence, high precision CCD photometry; near
infrared diaphragm-limiting or area photometry; low to medium resolution spectroscopy; and
polarimetry. Finally, we note that an array of a half-dozen light bucket telescopes equipped with
very high speed photometers could, with their many two-telescope combinations, provide images
of the surfaces of nearby stars via intensity interferometry—a quantum-mechanical effect that
occurs at sub-nanosecond timescales. Such an array would be a modern extension of Hanbury
Brown’s pioneering research, decades ago, with his two-telescope interferometer in Narrabri,
Australia.
Conference Agenda
Friday 31 December
8:30
9:00
Coffee and informal discussions
Welcomes and Introductions
Light Bucket Astronomy
9:20 Light Bucket Astronomy, Russ Genet and Bruce Holenstein
9:40 Signal-to-Noise of Program Object Measures, Bruce Holenstein
1
10:00 Visions for Large Light Buckets, Russ Genet and Bruce Holenstein
Break 10:20
Special Talks
10:40 Kepler: Are There Any Good Worlds Out There? Jon Jenkens
11:00 Innovation and the American Amateur Spirit, Jack Hitt
Near Infrared Aperture Photometry
11:20 Progress Report on a J/H(Ks) Aperture Photometer, Greg Jones
Sol-Gel Processes and Non-Vacuum Overcoating
11:40 Introduction to Sol-Gel Processes, Lisa Brodhacker
12:20 Discussion with Nissan Chemical on Sol Gel Overcoats
Lunch at Conference 12:50
Mirror Coating Technologies
2:00 Deposition Silvering, Sagar Venkateswaran
2:20 Silvering and Overcoating Experiments, Bruce Holenstein, Sagar Venkateswaran,
Mike Holenstein, and Dylan Holenstein
Mirror, Telescope, and Observatory Control Systems
2:40 Low Cost Fixed and Bimorph Correctors, Bruce Holenstein
3:00 Sidereal Technology Control System Developments, Dan Gray
3:20 Dedicated Systems: Small Telescopes in the Era of Big Science, Josh Walawender.
3:40 The Case for Automated Telescopes, Josh Walawender
4:00 Adjourn No group plans for New Year’s Eve
Saturday 1 January High Time Resolution Astrophysics
8:30 Coffee and informal discussions
Occultation Photometry
9:00 Lunar Occultation Theory and Practice, Bruce Holenstein
9:40 Observing Trans-Neptunian Objects with Portable Telescopes, Marc Buie
10:00 Portable Occultation Systems for Studies of Pluto and Triton, Leslie Young and
Cathy Olkin
10:20 (Young and Olkin Part 2)
Break 1040
High Time Resolution Photometry
11:00 Methods for Timestamping Analog and Digital Video, Frank Suites
11:20 Occultation Timing Accuracy: Dependence on Frame Rate and S/N, Frank Suites
11:40 Experiments with High Speed Cameras, Bruce Holenstein
12:20 A High Speed Electrometer for Photodiode Photometers, Bruce Holenstein
Lunch at Conference 12:40
Occultation Workshop
2:00 Aberration Theory and Prototype Mirror Experiments, Bruce Holenstein
2:20 Software Programs, Bruce Holenstein
Mauna Kea Observing Session
4:00 Depart CFHT HQ for Mauna Kea VIS
4:05 Pick up sandwiches at Subway
5:50 Eat sandwiches at the VIS
2
6:30
8:00
9:00
Observing Session
Depart Mauna Kea VIS
Arrive back at CFHT HQ
Sunday 2 January
8:30
Coffee and informal discussions
Special Talks
9:00 The Other Side of Innovation, Chris Trimble
9:20 Missions for Portable Meter Class Telescopes, David Dunham
Kilns and Slumping
9:40 A Kiln for Slumping Mirrors, Olivier Guyon.
10:00 Low Cost Kilns, David Davis and Andrew Aurigema
Break 10:20
Passive and Active Primary Mirror Support Systems
10:40 Low Cost Air Bag Mirror Support System, Steve Taylor
11:00 Active Primary Mirror Support Experiment, Mike Connelley
Foam Glass Composite Mirrors
11:20 Foam Glass Composite Mirrors, Andrew Aurigema. Yes.
11:40 Foam Glass Composite Video
12:00 Lightweight Mirror Experiments, David Davis
12:20 Tessellated Foam Glass Mirrors, David Davis
Lunch 12:40
Meter Class Portable Telescopes
2:00 Meniscus Mirror Portable Telescope, Olivier Guyon
2:20 Portable 1 Meter Telescope, Mike Connelley
2:40 Portable Computerized 1 Meter Telescope, Russ Genet, and Reed and Chris Estrada
3:00 Telescope Design Considerations for Near Infrared Photometry, Mike Connelley
Workshop: Portable Meter Class Telescopes 3:30-4:30
Wrap up Dinner in Waimea
6:00 Social Hour
6:30 Dinner
Conference Specifics
All talks will be PowerPoint. Please send your file in advance to Bruce Holenstein at
[email protected]. If possible, please convert your PowerPoint slides to a PDF file as
this will make it easier to send as an email attachment and for us to handle. CFHT has a well
equipped conference room with both projection and call-in conference facilities. Remote briefers
should have their slides up on their computer when they call in, and we will also have them up at
CFHT. We will provide remote briefers with a call-in number. No PIN will be required.
Because we have to schedule talks and panel discussions for remote participation, we will have to
very strictly adhere to the final schedule and allotted times. Total talks are all 20 minutes, but this
includes setup/introduction, questions, and any wrap up. So please plan on just a 10-15 minute
talk. It is best to error on the side of too few slides, as at the end of the allotted time we will,
finished or not, have to cut things off and move on to the next scheduled briefer (sorry about
that). A timer will give 10, 5, 2, and 1 minute notices of remaining time. For remote briefers,
3
please let us know if the day and time we scheduled your talk will work for you. If not, we will
reschedule. Please expect a few iterations of the schedule as we iron out conflicts.
Optional written versions of presentations are most welcome, and will be combined with other
contributions in a book to be published by the Collins Foundation Press.
4