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Astronomical Instrumentation
at Texas A&M
Jennifer Marshall
Darren DePoy
TAMU Instrumentation
• The Department of Physics and Astronomy at
Texas A&M University has built a new
astronomical instrumentation lab
– Three years old
– Led by Darren DePoy
• Mission: to design and build astronomical
instrumentation to support Dark Energy and
Cosmology observations
• Partner in DES, LSST, HETDEX/HET, GMT
DECam for DES
• Dark Energy Survey
– Led by Fermilab
– DECam: Large new
camera for CTIO 4m
telescope
• DePoy is Project
Scientist for DECam
• TAMU is involved in
calibration efforts for
DECam
– DECal
– aTmCam
DECal for DES
Calibration system for DECam:
• Flat field screen
• Daily flat field system
– LED flat field lamps
• Spectrophotometric
calibration system
Screen
Projection optics
Photodiode
– Long fiber bundle
– Monochromator (with
spectrometer monitor)
– Monitor photodiodes
Mono
chromator
Fiber bundle
Light
source
Spectro
meter
aTmCam for DES
• aTmCam is an
atmospheric monitoring
camera
• Goal: produce <1%
photometry by
monitoring sky during
DES observations
aerosol
atmosphere throughput
‘cannon’ mask with
wedge prism and
narrowband filters
1.3
1.2
normalized transmittance
1.1
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
300
400
500
pressure
600
700
800
wavelength in nm
ozone
900
water
1000
1100
1200
VIRUS for HETDEX
VIRUS is a new
instrument for HET to
support HETDEX
survey
– 150+ channel fiber-fed
spectrograph
– >33,000 1.5” fibers
– 350-550 nm coverage
at R~700
GMACS for GMT
• Texas A&M is a
founding partner in
the Giant Magellan
Telescope
• Recently completed a
one-year design study
of GMACS
– Wide field multi-object
optical spectrograph
MooSci for GMT
• We have built a lunar
scintillometer called
MooSci for GMT site
testing
• Used to test site
before and after top
of mountain is
removed
Antarctic instrumentation
• We are interested in collaborating in
projects for Antarctica/Dome A
– We have begun discussions with Teledyne
regarding purchasing detectors for KDUST
– We could also help with camera design/testing