Optimizing the night time is essential on a site like Maunakea. The mountain offers excellent weather conditions that can be used to observe more programs than most sites in the world. CFHT has been making significant efforts toward optimal usage of the night time, starting in 2000 with the implementation of the Queued Service Observing (QSO) system followed by the installation of the dome vents in 2012 and lastly, the implementation of the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) observing mode in 2013. The QSO-SNR mode is now used by default at CFHT for two of our instruments: MegaCam, a one square degree imager, and ESPaDOnS, a high resolution spectropolarimeter. This paper describes the implementation strategy for each instrument as well as the time saved using this observing mode.
KEYWORDS: Signal to noise ratio, Signal to noise ratio, Sensors, James Webb Space Telescope, Point spread functions, Spectroscopy, Interference (communication), Imaging spectroscopy, Coronagraphy, Astronomy, Signal detection
In an effort to optimize the night time utilizing the exquisite weather on Maunakea, CFHT has equipped its dome with vents and is now moving its Queued Scheduled Observing (QSO)1 based operations toward Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) observing. In this new mode, individual exposure times for a science program are estimated using a model that uses measurements of the weather conditions as input and the science program is considered completed when the depth required by the scientific requirements are reached. These changes allow CFHT to make better use of the excellent seeing conditions provided by Maunakea, allowing us to complete programs in a shorter time than allocated to the science programs.
In 2007, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) undertook a project to enable the remote control of the
observatory at the summit of Mauna Kea from a control room in the Headquarters building in Waimea. Instead of
having two people operating the telescope and performing the observations from the summit, this project will allow one
operator to remotely control the observatory and perform observations for the night. It is not possible to have one person
operate from the summit, as our Two Person Rule requires at least two people for work at the summit for safety reasons.
This paper will describe how systems engineering concepts have shaped the design of the project structure and
execution.
The Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate has collected and analyzed passive Multispectral radiometric data using two different sets of filters: astronomical broad-band Johnson filters and the Space Object Identification In Living Color (SILC) filters for Space Situational Awareness (SSA) of geosynchronous satellites (GEOs). The latter set of filters was designed as part of the SILC Space Battlelab initiative. The radiometric data of geosynchronous satellites were taken using a charge-coupled device (CCD) on the 24-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope at Capilla Peak Observatory of the University of New Mexico. The target list is comprised of satellites with similar and dissimilar bus structures. Additionally, some of the satellites are in a cluster. The results presented will show the advances in classifying GEOs by their bus type and a resolution scenario of cluster cross tagging using Multispectral radiometric measurements.
The Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate has collected and analyzed photometric data using the SILC filters for Space Object Identification (SOI) of geosynchronous (GEO) satellites. This set of filters was designed as part of the Space Battlelab initiative, SOI In Living Color (SILC). The photometric data of geosynchronous satellites were taken using a charge-coupled device (CCD) on the 24-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope at Capilla Peak Observatory of the University of New Mexico. The objects under discussion are satellites with similar and dissimilar bus structures in a cluster. The data and analysis results to date are discussed.
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