COO Optical/Infrared Group News Archive

2012

  • DBSP Red-side Upgrade successfully commissioned at Palomar Observatory (Nov 30, 2011)
  • PALM-3000 sets world's record with first high-order adaptive optics correction on-sky with 3,388 active-actuator Xinetics DM (June 22, 2011)

2011

  • Robo-AO granted funds from IUSSTF to hold a workshop on Robo-AO science, technology and further Indo-Caltech collaborations (Aug 22-25, Prof. Ramaprakash, Indian PI, Dr. Baranec, US PI; February 10, 2011)
  • Gattini-UV South Pole Camera (Dr. Anna Moore, PI) delivered to Amundsen-Scott Station (Jan 18, 2011)

2010

  • Successful commissioning of Robo-AO's UV laser guide star at Palomar Observatory (Sept 25, 2010)
  • MOSFIRE first light obtained in Caltech laboratory clean room (July 1, 2010)
  • First release of full PALM-3000 software delivered to Cahill PALM-3000 testbed (April 5, 2010)
  • Initial P1640 + CAL engineering run marks key step to integration of planet finding AO system (March 22, 2010)
  • Robo-AO's real-time software to be used in Pomona College’s NGS version of Robo-AO at Table Mountain (Dr. Christoph Baranec, Sub-award PI, $100,000 from NSF MRI-R^2; March 4, 2010)

2009

  • Robo-AO (Dr. Christoph Baranec, PI) awarded $576,782 from NSF ATI program (June 15, 2009)
  • Gattini-UV South Pole Camera (Dr. Anna Moore, PI) awarded $311,706 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) (Public Law 111-5) (May 20, 2009)
  • MOSFIRE Project receives cryogenic slit mask (CSU) mechanism from CSEM, Switzerland (May 13, 2009)
  • Caltech Optical Observatories Instrumentation Group relocates to new Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (February 2, 2009)

2008

  • Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) mosaic imaging camera sees first light on the Samuel Oschin Telescope (December 13, 2008)
  • Oxford's SWIFT visible light integral field spectrograph sees first light with Palomar AO / Palomar LGS AO (October 12, 2008)
  • AMNH's P1640 IR speckle suppression integral field spectrocoronagraph sees first light with Palomar AO (July 8, 2008)
  • COO awarded $45K for Antarctic site testing research (June 14, 2008)
  • Four new seeing-limited instrument pre-concept studies for Keck given the go-ahead (May 12, 2008)
  • COO and JPL awarded $160K to study Non-linear Detector Effects in Weak Gravitational Lensing (February 14, 2008)

2007

  • Palomar Adaptive Optics + Lucky Cam named one of TIME magazine's 50 Best Inventions of the Year in 2007:
  • Triplespec First Light - the Cornell-led, no moving parts, cross-dispersed echelle has successful first run on the 200" telescope (October 2, 2007)
  • Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) kicks off the development of MOSAIC, its wide-field imaging camera for the 48" Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar (October 1, 2007)
  • CAMERA, COO's low cost MEMs AO testbed locks loop in the Robinson Lab (August 15, 2007)
  • COO/JPL Palomar Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics achieves 48% K-band Strehl in superior seeing conditions at Palomar Mountain (July 29, 2007)

2006

  • COO awarded $1.1M by National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program for development of the visible-light PALM-3000 AO system on the 5.1m Hale Telescope at Palomar Mountain (Sept 3, 2006)
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Topic revision: r9 - 2012-07-16 - RichardDekany
 
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