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PALM-3000 Project TWiki

Link of the Day: 120228 P3K Operations Plan Review

Introduction

PALM-3000 is a machine designed to suppress atmospheric and other scattering sources of starlight to such exquisite degree to enable direct imaging of new worlds in orbit around nearby stars. It is high-precision upgrade to the successful Palomar Adaptive Optics System on the 5.1 meter Hale Telescope enabled by several unique technical innovations: the world's highest actuator count deformable mirror (3388 active actuators); an innovative wavefront processing computer based on a cluster of off-the-shelf graphics cards; and a flexible wavefront sensor with selectable 8x8 to 64x64 sampling of the optical wavefront in the telescope exit pupil.

Project Status

First light of the full PALM-3000 with the PHARO near-infrared imager was achieved on June 20, 2011. Initial performance tests are under evaluation. The system will be available for shared-risk science observing with PHARO in 2011B in N=64 and N=32 AO correction modes (approx. 3,300 and 900 active corrections respectively, updated 2,000 times per second). Bright-NGS performance is expected to be as small as 100 nm RMS residual wavefront error for natural guide star magnitude V < 6. NGS performance for the N=32 mode is expected to be < 200 nm RMS for V < 12, all in median seeing conditions.)

Expected science programs include:

P1640 (Drs. Ben Oppenheimer, AMNH and Ian Parry, Cambridge University) and P1640 CAL (Drs. Michael Shao and Gautam Vasisht, JPL)
- A dedicated 3-year, 99-night exoplanet search and characterization survey utilizing the private P1640 imaging spectrograph and calibration system (incl. Prof. Lynne Hillenbrand and Drs. Chas Beichman, Justin Crepp, & Sasha Hinkley, Caltech).
PHARO (Drs. Thomas Hayward and Bernard Brandl, Cornell University)
- ~ 1 lambda/D inner working distance vector vortex coronagraph, developed by JPL (Dr. Gene Serabyn)
  - Direct exoplanet and disk imaging in very young star systems
- Advanced coronagraphic techniques developed by Stoney Brook (Dr. Stanimir Metchev) and Caltech (Dr. Justin Crepp)
  - Exoplanet characterization, including Y - K band direct imaging
SWIFT (Drs. Nirajan Thatte and Fraser Clarke, Oxford University)
- Visible-light integral field spectroscopy with private SWIFT instrument provided by Oxford University
  - Galaxy assembly and evolution
  - 80 mas resolution solar system spectroscopy
TMAS, the Ten Milli-Arcsecond per Pixel camera (Drs. Sergi Hildebrandt and Richard Dekany, Caltech)
- 20 mas resolution imaging of solar system bodies, including asteroid binarity
- Dark matter and modified gravity studies via precision astrometry

What's New?

Partnership

The PALM-3000 project is a partnership between Caltech, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the American Museum of Natural History, and is partially funded by the National Science Foundation and by the generosity of Ron and Glo Helin. The Principal Investigator of PALM-3000 is Dr. Richard Dekany, Caltech Optical Observatories.

Latest Image

PALM-3000 installed at the Cass focus of the Hale Telescope at Palomar Mountain. Photo: Scott Kardel.

Instrument Layout

Team Meetings and Reviews

Project Documentation

Technical Library

Organized by Product Breakdown Structure

Off-axis Relay
Optical Bench Subsystem
Wavefront Sensors
- High-Order Wavefront Sensor (HOWFS)
Wavefront Correctors, Drivers, and Electronics
- High-Order Deformable Mirror (HODM)
Electronics
- Real-time Computer (RTC)
- Cassegrain Cage Racks
Software
Science Instruments
Infrastructure
Calibration Procedures

Project Team

PALM-3000 Personnel Directory

Integrated Product Teams	Members (Lead)	Meetings (Pacific Time)	Location
Management	Burruss, Dekany, (Roberts), Troy	Various	Caltech/JPL
Systems Engineering	Burruss, (Dekany), Roberts, Troy	Various	Caltech/JPL
Optics	Baranec, Burruss, Bui, (Roberts), Wallace	Instrument Interfaces only	--
Electronics	Angione, Croner, (Guiwits), Palmer	Complete	--
Software	Angione, (Burruss), Guiwits, Hale, Truong	Complete	--
Infrastructure	Baker, Dekany, Guiwits, Henning, Hickey, McKenna, Roberts, (Zolkower)	Fortnightly Tuesdays 9:30am	Phone
Integration & Testing	Burruss, Dekany, (Roberts)	Various	Caltech/Phone
Performance?	Burruss, Crepp, Dekany, (Roberts)	To be scheduled	Caltech/Phone

I	Attachment	Action	Size	Date	Who	Comment
eps	hd204277_contrast.eps	manage	100.7 K	17 Dec 2010 - 00:06	JustinCrepp	Current Contrast Performance
png	p3k_bench_100622.png	manage	2028.1 K	23 Jun 2010 - 16:42	AntoninBouchez
jpg	p3k_installed_on_cass.jpg	manage	6869.4 K	23 May 2011 - 19:55	RichardDekany
jpg	palomatic3000_01.jpg	manage	569.4 K	25 Jan 2008 - 18:28	AntoninBouchez