Caltech Optical Observatories Palomar Reference TWiki

Dr. Richard Dekany, Associate Director for Instrument Development

Palomar Telescopes

• 18" Schmidt Telescope, PI: F. Zwicky, 1936 - 2006(?) (Decommissioned)
• 200" Hale Telescope, PI: G. Hale, 1947 - Present, In Use
• 48" Samuel Oschin Telescope (Robotic), PIs: D. Hendricks, I. Bowen, et al., 1949 - Present, In Use
• 60" Telescope (Robotic), PI: ?, 1970 - Present, In Use
• Palomar Testbed Interferometer, PIs: M. Shao & M. Colavita, 1995 - 2009, Decommissioned
• Sleuth, Planet Search Telescope, PI: D. Charbonneau, 2004 - 2007, Decommissioned
• 24" Telescope, PI: M. Brown, 2006 - , Commissioning?

Palomar Instrumentation Projects (partial list)

Seeing-Limited

• Solid-block Schmidt camera (designed by Hendricks, optics from Mt Wilson optical shop) 1939 - ?, Decommissioned
• Prime focus pulse-counting photometer (PI: Baum) 1953 - ?, Decommissioned
• Single-channel photomultiplier (PI: B. Oke) ? - ?, Decommissioned
• "Multichannel" 32-channel spectrum scanner for Cass focus (PI: B. Oke) 1968 - ?, Decommissioned
• PFUEI (Prime Focus Universal Extragalactic Instrument, PI: J. Gunn) 1981? - ?, Decommissioned
• "The Bird Cage" High-speed chopper ?
• Cass Spectrometer ?
• "The Coffin" ?
• Millimeter Heterodyne system (PI: T. Phillips) ? - ?, Decommissioned)
• PIFS (Prime focus InfraRed Spectrograph, PI: ?) ? - ?, ?)
• D51 (5 micron detector, PI: K. Matthews) ? - ?, Decommissioned)
• D57 (10 micron bolometer, PI: K. Matthews) ? - ?, Decommissioned)
• D68 (Fast photometer, PI: K. Matthews) ? - ?, Decommissioned)
• "2D-Frutti" (PI: S. Shectman) late 1980's ?
• East Arm Echelle with Prime Focus Fiber Feed, PI: K. Libbrecht) ? - ?, Decommissioned)
• Cass IR (IR Imager & Spectrograph, PI: T. Soifer) ? - ?, In Use)
• F/9 Imager (Visible-light Imager & Guider, PI: ?) ? - ?, In Use)
• Norris Spectrograph (Multi-object Fiber-fed Visible-light Spectrograph, PI: J. Cohen) ? - ?, Decommissioned
• COSMIC (High-throughput Imager & Multi-slit Spectrograph, PI: A. Dressler) ? - Present, In Use
• DBSP (Medium Resolution, Dual-channel Visible-light Spectrograph, PIs: Oke & Gunn) 1982 - Present, In Use)
  • Blue-side upgrade (PI: R. Smith) 2004
  • Red-side computer upgrade (PI: R. Smith) 2005
  • Red-side detector upgrade (PS: E. Kirby) 2011
• Four Shooter (Visible-light Imager, Spectrograph, and Multislit Spectrograph, PI: J. Gunn w/ J. Westphal) 1984? - ?, Decommissioned
• SpectroCam-10 (Mid-IR Imager & Spectrograph, PI: J. Houck) 1992 - Present, In Use (Rare)
• LFC (Large Format Visible-light Camera, PI: M. Metzger) 2000 - Present, In Use
• WIRC (Large Format IR Camera, PI: T. Herter) 2001 - Present, In Use
• Triplespec (Cross-dispersed simultaneous IR J,H,K Slit Spectrograph, PI: T. Herter) 2003 - Present, In Use
• East Arm Echelle (Visible-light Spectrograph, PI: K. Taylor) 2004 - Present, In Use
• CWI (Cosmic Web Imager (Near UV IFU Spectrograph), PI: C. Martin) 2006 - Present, In Use
• PTF (Palomar Transient Factory Wide-Field Mosaic Visible-light Imager, PI: S. Kulkarni) 2007 - Present, In Use
• ARCONS (MKIDS Demonstrator, PI: B. Mazin) 2009 - 2014 , Decommissioned (Private)
• SEDM (Spectral Energy Distribution Machine for 60", PI: N. Konidaris) 2010 - , In Use
• ZKI (Z-to-K Imager for wide-field, near-IR imaging on 200", PI: R. Dekany) 2010 - , Proposed, Not Funded
• MINERVA (Precision RV Spectrograph) (PI: J. Johnson) 2011 - , Proposed (Private), Transferred to Harvard U.
• WaSP (WAfer-Scale camera for Prime, 200" Wide-field visible CCD camera, PI: S. Kulkarni) 2012 - , Commissioning
• GASP at Palomar (200" High-Speed Stokes Polarimeter, PI: G. Hallinan) 2012 - , Development (Private)
• ZTF (Zwicky Transient Facility: Wider-Field Mosaic Visible-light Imager and Characterization Engines, PI: S. Kulkarni) 2013 - , Integration and Test
• CHIMERA (Moderate-field, high-speed imager, PI: G. Hallinan) 2012 - 2013, Decommissioned
• CHIMERA II (Wide-field, high-speed imager, PI: G. Hallinan, 2014 - , In Use
• DARKNESS (MKIDS Imaging Spectrograph, PI: B. Mazin) 2016 - , Commissioning (Private)
• WIRC-POL (WIRC Polarization and Detector Upgrade, PIs: D. Mawet, H. Knutson) 2015 -, In Use

• KPED (PI: M. Coughlin) 2017 - 2021
• SEDM II (PI: S. Kulkarni) 2021 -

Diffraction-Limited

Adaptive Optics and Instruments

• PALMAO (NGS & Sodium LGS Adaptive Optics, PI: R. Dekany) 1995 - 2010, Decommissioned
  • PALM-MGSU (Multiple Guide Star Unit: Natural guide star tomography demonstrator, PI: R. Dekany) 2001 - 2006, Decommissioned
  • LAMP (Experimental Fast-Frame-Rate Visible Imager & Polarimeter, PI: N. Law) 2006 - 2007, Decommissioned
• PALM-3000 (Visible-light Adaptive Optics Upgrade, PI: R. Dekany) 2006 - Present, In Use
  • PHARO (IR J,H,K Imager, Slit Spectrograph, & Coronagraph, PIs: T. Hayward & B. Brandl) 1995- Present, In Use
  • AMNH Project 1640 (An IR High-Contrast Speckle Suppression Optimized Coronagraph IFU Spectrograph, PI: B. Oppenheimer) 2005 - 2017, In Use
  • SWIFT (Visible-light IFU Spectrograph, PI: N. Thatte) 2005 - Present, In Use
  • AO Fiber Nuller (Experimental High-Contrast Nulling Interferometer, PI: E. Serabyn) 2006 - Present, In Use]]
  • TMAS (Ten Milliarcsecond visible imaging camera for PALM-3000, PIs: R. Dekany and S. Hildebrandt) 2011 - , Development
  • Stellar Double Coronagraph (SDC) for PALM-3000 (PI: E. Serabyn) 2011 - , Operations (Private)
  • PALM-3000 WFS and RTC Upgrade (PI: D. Mawet) 2017-, Development
  • Palomar Ultraviolet Laser for the Study of Exoplanets (PULSE) (Rayleigh LGS AO for high-contrast science around faint targets (V>15)) (PI: R. Dekany) 2017-, Proposed
  • Palomar Habitable Zone Planet Finder (Infrared Precision RV Spectrograph) 2018-, Development
• Robo-AO (Low-cost, replicable, robotic laser adaptive optics and science system, PI: C. Baranec) 2007 - 2015, Survey Complete, Decommissioned
• Robo-AO Kitt Peak (PI: S. Kulkarni, PS: R. Riddle) 2015 - Present, In Use
  • Visible Camera (PI: C. Baranec) 2011 - Present, In Use
  • Eyepiece/Visitor Port (PI: C. Baranec) 2011 - Present, In Use
  • Infrared Camera (PI: C. Baranec) 2012 - 2017

Tools

* Palomar scanned drawing directory

( advanced search)