The Telescopio San Pedro Mártir project intends to construct a 6.5m telescope to be installed at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in the Sierra San Pedro Mártir in northern Baja California, Mexico. The project is an association of Mexican institutions, lead by the Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica and the Instituto de Astronomía at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, in partnership with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the University of Arizona’s Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory. The project is currently in the planning and design stage. Once completed, the partners plan to operate the MMT and TSPM as a binational astrophysical observatory.
Alan Watson, Michael Richer, Joshua Bloom, Nathaniel Butler, Urania Ceseña, David Clark, Enrique Colorado, Antolín Córdova, Alejandro Farah, Lester Fox-Machado, Ori Fox, Benjamín García, Leonid Georgiev, J. Jesús González, Gerardo Guisa, Leonel Gutiérrez, Joel Herrera, Christopher Klein, Alexander Kutyrev, Francisco Lazo, William Lee, Eduardo López, Esteban Luna, Benjamín Martínez, Francisco Murillo, José Manuel Murillo, Juan Manuel Núñez, J. Xavier Prochaska, José Luís Ochoa, Fernando Quirós, David Rapchun, Carlos Román-Zúñiga, Gennady Valyavin
The Reionization And Transients Infra-Red (RATIR) camera is intended for robotic operation on the 1.5-meter Harold
Johnson telescope of the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional on the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico.
This paper describes the work we have carried out to successfully automate the telescope and prepare it for RATIR. One
novelty is our use of real-time absolute astrometry from the finder telescopes to point and guide the main telescope.
The wavefront sensor is an important part of active control for an Active Optics System (AOS). The wavefront sensibility of a beam compressor is experimentally tested on the 2.1m telescope at SPM. This is a simple wavefront sensor based on the wave propagation equation. A qualitative analysis of the experimental data is presented. It is concluded that the beam compressor has enough sensibility to be used as a wavefront sensor for the AOS.
The Observatorio Astronomico Nacional at San Pedro Martir is situated on the summit of the San Pedro Martir Sierra in the Baja California peninsula of Mexico, at 2800m above sea level. For as long as three decades, a number of groups and individuals have gathered extremely valuable data leading to the site characterization for astronomical observations. Here we present a summary of the most important results obtained so far. The aspects covered are: weather, cloud coverage, local meteorology, atmospheric optical extinction, millimetric opacity, geotechnical studies, seeing, optical turbulence profiles, wind profiles and 3D simulations of atmospheric turbulence. The results place San Pedro Martir among the most favorable sites in the world for astronomical observations. It seems to be particularly well-suited for extremely large telescopes because of the excellent turbulence and local wind conditions, to mention but two characteristics. Long-term monitoring of some parameters still have to be undertaken. The National University of Mexico (UNAM) and other international institutions are putting a considerable effort in that sense.
We present the dual IR camera CID for the 2.12 m telescope of the
Observatorio Astronomico Nacional de Mexico, IA-UNAM. The system
consists of two separate cameras/spectrographs that operate in
different regions of the IR spectrum. In the near IR, CID comprises a direct imaging camera with wide band filters, a CVF, and a low resolution spectrograph employing an InSb 256 x 256 detector. In the mid IR, CID uses a BIB 128 x 128 detector for direct imaging in 10 and 20 microns. Optics and mechanics of CID were developed at IR-Labs
(Tucson). The electronics was developed by R. Leach (S. Diego). General design, construction of auxiliary optics (oscillating
secondary mirror), necessary modifications and optimization of
the electronics, and acquisition software were carried out at OAN/
UNAM. The compact design of the instruments allow them to share
a single dewar and the cryogenics system.
We describe the recent upgrade of the Manchester Echelle Spectrometer, currently in use at San Pedro Mártir. This upgrade has included a user interface and a new CCD acquisition software. The spectrometer control is now done by a microcontroller, whose inputs are new sensors and encoders installed inside the spectrometer. The instrument control is now fully carried out from a graphical user interface running in a personal computer. The acquisition computer sends the images to the GUI through an ethernet link. In this paper, we present the general scheme and the programs developed for Linux (in C++ and Tcl/Tk) that permits an easy integral operation of the instrument, as well as the creation of scripts intended to the optimization of the observing run and the future interaction with the telescope and the guider. This upgraded system has been operated successfully during several campaigns in the 2.1-meter telescope at Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in San Pedro Mártir.
It has been known that in BIB type, Si:As Mid-IR detectors the internal gain can be strongly related to the internal noise. We prove that by modifying the internal gain it is possible to increase the signal-to-noise ratio to a level which is consistent with poissonian statistics only.
Optical testing of the 2.1-m telescope in San Pedro Martir, Observatorio Astronomico Nacional de Mexico, by the methods of wavefront curvature sensing and bi-Ronchi analysis, has shown that the telescope suffered of large amounts of astigmatism. We identified these as due to improper primary mirror support and developed an active control system to correct for it. The number and position of the actuators were decided in accordance to the flexural modes that needed to be corrected, resulting in a system of 18 pressure controlled pneumatic actuators, with an outer loop that verifies the load at three hard points. A PID algorithm and matrix inversion are fundamental parts of this outer loop, that guarantees that the M1 mirror is tilted as a rigid body to maintain it properly aligned. The successful performance of the system to correct low order aberrations is reported.
In this paper, the characteristics of a mount for secondary mirror of an astronomical telescope are presented. The mount has five freedom degrees. The control allows to focus with errors of +/- 1 micron and to align with inclinations and displacements with error of +/- 3.48 arcsec and +/- 8.3 micron respectively. The optical tests are presented before and after placing this mount, as well as control electronics and mechanical details.
We present the Mexican Infrared-Optical New Technology Telescope Project (TIM). The design and construction of a 7.8 m telescope, which will operate at the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional in San Pedro Martir, B.C. (Mexico), are described. The site has been selected based on seeing and sky condition measurements taken for several years. The f/1.5 primary mirror consists of 19 hexagonal off-axis parabolic Zerodur segments. The telescope structure will be alt-az, lightweight, low cost, and high stiffness. It will be supported by hydrostatic bearings. The single secondary will complement a Ritchey-Chretien f/15 design, delivering to Cassegrain focus instrumentation. The telescope will be infrared optimized to allow observations ranging from 0.3 to 20 microns. The TIM mirror cell provides an independent and full active support system for each segment, in order to achieve both, phasing capability and very high quality imaging (0.25 arcsec).
We are developing an instrument to study the morphology and kinematics of the molecular gas and its interrelationship with the ionized gas in star forming regions, planetary nebulae and supernova remnants in our Galaxy and other galaxies, as well as the kinematics of the IR emitting gas in starburst and interacting galaxies. This instrument consists of a water-free fused silica scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer optimized in the spectral range from 1.5 to 2.4 micrometers with high spectral resolution. It will be installed in the collimated beam of a nearly 2:1 focal reducer, designed for the Cassegrain focus of the 2.1 m telescope of the San Pedro Martir National Astronomical Observatory. Mexico, in its f/7.5 configuration, yielding a field of view of 11.6 arc-min. It will provide direct images as well as interferograms to be focused on a 1024 X 1024 HAWAII array, covering a spectral range from 0.9 to 2.5 micrometers .
We describe the configuration and operation modes of the IR camera/spectrograph: TEQUILA based on a 1024 X 1024 HgCdTe FPA. The optical system will allow three possible modes of operation: direct imaging, low and medium resolution spectroscopy and polarimetry. The basic system is being designed to consist of the following: 1) A LN2 dewar that allocates the FPA together with the preamplifiers and a 24 filter position cylinder. 2) Control and readout electronics based on DSP modules linked to a workstation through fiber optics. 3) An opto-mechanical assembly cooled to -30 degrees that provides an efficient operation of the instrument in its various modes. 4) A control module for the moving parts of the instrument. The opto-mechanical assembly will have the necessary provision to install a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer and an adaptive optics correction system. The final image acquisition and control of the whole instrument is carried out in a workstation to provide the observer with a friendly environment. The system will operate at the 2.1 m telescope at the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional in San Pedro Martir, B.C. (Mexico), and is intended to be a first-light instrument for the new 7.8m Mexican IR-Optical Telescope.
The kinematics of the interstellar medium may be studied by means of a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer (SFPI). This allows the coverage of a wider field of view with higher spatial and spectral resolution than when a high-dispersion classical spectrograph is used. The system called PUMA consists of a focal reducer and a SFPI installed in the 2.1 m telescope of the San Pedro Martir National Astronomical Observatory (SPM), Mexico, in its f/7.5 configuration. It covers a field of view of 10 arcmin providing direct images as well as interferograms which are focused on a 1024 X 1024 Tektronix CCD, covering a wide spectral range. It is considered the integration of other optical elements for further developments. The optomechanical system and the developed software allow exact, remote positioning of all movable parts and control the FPI scanning and data acquisition. The parallelism of the interferometer plates is automatically achieved by a custom method. The PUMA provides spectral resolutions of 0.414 Angstrom and a free spectral range of 19.8 Angstrom. Results of high quality that compete with those obtained by similar systems in bigger telescopes, are presented.
We describe a speckle-based, telescope-position encoder that overcomes the need the ruled scales and gratings. Using the natural surface markings to produce a speckle pattern, the system is noncontacting and simply aligned. Imaging with a CCD and computing displacements with binary correlation, sub-pixel resolution can be achieved by parabolic approximation. Results of test on the 2-meter telescope at San Pedro Martir are presented.
The development of the IR camera and spectrograph (CAMILA) is described. It is based on a NICMOS 3 HgCdTe detector developed by Rockwell with a spectral response of 1 to 2.5 micrometers . The initial configuration of the system was recently concluded and consists of the following components: detector cryostat, detector control electronics, low noise preamplifiers, detector-PC interface, operating system and optics. The characterization of the electronics and the science grade chip are presented. The complete optical configuration allows the following modes of operation: direct imaging (12 filter positions), polarimetry and spectroscopy on three dispersion modes (low, medium, and high resolution). Preliminary spectroscopic results at the H band with R equals 1500 are presented. The project is a collaborative effort of groups from IAUNAM and UMASS (Amherst) and will be used mainly at the 2.1-m telescope of San Pedro Martir, B.C. (Mexico).
The system called PUMA is an instrument consisting of a focal reducer coupled to a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer (SFPI), which is being developed for the Observatorio Astronomicao Nacional at San Pedro Martir, B.C. It will be installed at the 2.0 m Ritchey-Chretien telescope with a focal ratio of F/7.9. It has interference filters, a calibration system, and field diaphragms. The SFPI can be moved out of the optical path in order to acquire direct images. The images produced by this instrument will be focused on an optoelectronic detector, a CCD, or a Mepsicron, depending on the spectral range used.
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