Infrared photometry with 'wall-eyed' pointing at the Large Binocular Telescope

Eckhart Spalding; Andrew Skemer; Philip M. Hinz; John M. Hill

doi:10.1117/12.2233811

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9 August 2016 Infrared photometry with 'wall-eyed' pointing at the Large Binocular Telescope

Eckhart Spalding, Andrew Skemer, Philip M. Hinz, John M. Hill

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI; 99083C (2016) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2233811
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Abstract

The brightness and variability of the atmosphere in the thermal infrared poses obstacles to precision photometry measurements. The need to remove atmospheric effects calls for the use of a comparison star, but it is usually impossible to fit both science and comparison targets on current long-wavelength (>2 μm) detectors. We present a new pointing mode at the Large Binocular Telescope, which has twin 8.4-m primary mirrors that can be pointed up to ~2 arcminutes apart and allow the placement of both targets on a small-field infrared detector. We present an observation of the primary transit of an exoplanet in front of its host star, and use it to provide preliminary constraints on the attainable photometric precision.

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Eckhart Spalding, Andrew Skemer, Philip M. Hinz, and John M. Hill "Infrared photometry with 'wall-eyed' pointing at the Large Binocular Telescope", Proc. SPIE 9908, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI, 99083C (9 August 2016); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2233811

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