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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