Free from the Atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2007-06-01

An artificial, laser-fed star now shines regularly over the sky of Paranal, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope, one of the world's most advanced large ground-based telescopes. This system provides assistance for the adaptive optics instruments on the VLT and so allows astronomers to obtain images free from the blurring effect of the atmosphere, regardless of the brightness and the location on the sky of the observed target. Now that it is routinely offered by the observatory, the skies seem much sharper to astronomers. In order to counteract the blurring effect of Earth's atmosphere, astronomers use the adaptive optics technique. This requires, however, a nearby reference star that has to be relatively bright, thereby limiting the area of the sky that can be surveyed. To surmount this limitation, astronomers now use at Paranal a powerful laser that creates an artificial star, where and when they need it. Two of the Adaptive Optics (AO) science instruments at the Paranal observatory, NACO and SINFONI, have been upgraded to work with the recently installed Laser Guide Star (LGS; see ESO 07/06) and have delivered their first scientific results. This achievement opens astronomers' access to a wealth of new targets to be studied under the sharp eyes of AO. "These unique results underline the advantage of using a Laser Guide Star with Adaptive Optics instruments, since they could not be obtained with Natural Guide Stars," says Norbert Hubin, head of the Adaptive Optics group at ESO. "This is also a crucial milestone towards the multi-laser systems ESO is designing for the VLT and the future E-ELT" (see e.g. ESO 19/07). ESO PR Photo 27a/07 ESO PR Photo 27a/07 An Ultra Luminous Merger (NACO-LGS/VLT) The Laser Guide Star System installed at Paranal uses the PARSEC dye laser developed by MPE-Garching and MPIA-Heidelberg, while the launch telescope and the laser laboratory was developed by ESO. "It is great to see the whole system working so well together," emphasises Richard Davies, project manager of the PARSEC laser. "To test the laser guide star adaptive optics system to its limits, and even beyond, we observed a number of galaxies, ranging from a close neighbour to one that is seen when the universe was very young," explains Markus Kasper, the NACO Instrument Scientist at ESO. The first objects that were observed are interacting galaxies. The images obtained reveal exquisite details, and have a resolution comparable to that of the Hubble Space Telescope. In one case, it was possible to derive for the first time the motion of the stars in two merging galaxies, showing that there are two counter-rotating discs of stars. "The enhanced resolution that laser guide star adaptive optics provides is certain to bring important new discoveries in this exciting area," says Davies ESO PR Photo 27c/07 ESO PR Photo 27c/07 Merging System Arp 220 (SINFONI-LGS/VLT) The astronomers then turned the laser to a galaxy called K20-ID5 which is at a redshift of 2.2 - we are seeing this galaxy when the universe was less than 1/3 of its current age. The image obtained with NACO shows that the stars are concentrated in a much more compact region than the gas. "These observations are both remarkable and exciting," declares Kasper. "They are the first time that it has been possible to trace in such detail the distributions of both the stars and the gas at an epoch where we are witnessing the formation of galaxies similar to our own Milky Way." At the opposite extreme, much nearer to home, LGS-AO observations were made of the active galaxy NGC 4945. The new LGS observations with NACO resolved the central parts into a multitude of individual stars. "It is in galaxies such as these where we can really quantify the star formation history in the vicinity of the nucleus, that we can start to piece together the puzzle of how gas is accreted onto the supermassive black hole, and understand how and when these black holes light up so brightly," says Davies. ESO PR Photo 27e/07 ESO PR Photo 27e/07 Active Galaxy NGC 4945 (NACO-LGS/VLT) Still closer to home, the LGS system can also be applied to solar system objects, such as asteroids or satellites, but also to the study of particular regions of spatially extended bodies like the polar regions of giant planets, where aurora activity is concentrated. During their science verification, the scientists turned the SINFONI instrument with the LGS to a Trans-Neptunian Object, 2003 EL 61. The high image contrast and sensitivity obtained with the use of the LGS mode permit the detection of the two faint satellites known to orbit the TNO. "From such observations one can study the chemical composition of the surface material of the TNO and its satellites (mainly crystalline water ice), estimate their surface properties and constrain their internal structure," explains Christophe Dumas, from ESO. The VLT Laser Guide System is the result of a collaborative work by a team of scientists and engineers from ESO and the Max Planck Institutes for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching and for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. NACO was built by a Consortium of French and German institutes and ESO. SINFONI was built by a Consortium of German and Dutch Institutes and ESO. More Information Normally, the achievable image sharpness of a ground-based telescope is limited by the effect of atmospheric turbulence. This drawback can be surmounted with adaptive optics, allowing the telescope to produce images that are as sharp as if taken from space. This means that finer details in astronomical objects can be studied, and also that fainter objects can be observed. In order to work, adaptive optics needs a nearby reference star that has to be relatively bright, thereby limiting the area of the sky that can be surveyed to a few percent only. To overcome this limitation, astronomers use a powerful laser that creates an artificial star, where and when they need it. The laser beam takes advantage of the layer of sodium atoms that is present in Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 90 kilometres. Shining at a well-defined wavelength the laser makes it glow. The laser is launched from Yepun, the fourth 8.2-m Unit Telescope of the Very Large Telescope, producing an artificial star. Despite this star being about 20 times fainter than the faintest star that can be seen with the unaided eye, it is bright enough for the adaptive optics to measure and correct the atmosphere's blurring effect. Compared to a normal star, this artificial star has some differing properties that the associated Laser Guide Star (LGS) Adaptive Optics (AO) system has to be able to cope with. A press release, in English and German, is also available from the Max-Planck Institute.

Back on Track

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2007-06-01

An artificial, laser-fed star now shines regularly over the sky of Paranal, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope, one of the world's most advanced large ground-based telescopes. This system provides assistance for the adaptive optics instruments on the VLT and so allows astronomers to obtain images free from the blurring effect of the atmosphere, regardless of the brightness and the location on the sky of the observed target. Now that it is routinely offered by the observatory, the skies seem much sharper to astronomers. In order to counteract the blurring effect of Earth's atmosphere, astronomers use the adaptive optics technique. This requires, however, a nearby reference star that has to be relatively bright, thereby limiting the area of the sky that can be surveyed. To surmount this limitation, astronomers now use at Paranal a powerful laser that creates an artificial star, where and when they need it. Two of the Adaptive Optics (AO) science instruments at the Paranal observatory, NACO and SINFONI, have been upgraded to work with the recently installed Laser Guide Star (LGS; see ESO 07/06) and have delivered their first scientific results. This achievement opens astronomers' access to a wealth of new targets to be studied under the sharp eyes of AO. "These unique results underline the advantage of using a Laser Guide Star with Adaptive Optics instruments, since they could not be obtained with Natural Guide Stars," says Norbert Hubin, head of the Adaptive Optics group at ESO. "This is also a crucial milestone towards the multi-laser systems ESO is designing for the VLT and the future E-ELT" (see e.g. ESO 19/07). ESO PR Photo 27a/07 ESO PR Photo 27a/07 An Ultra Luminous Merger (NACO-LGS/VLT) The Laser Guide Star System installed at Paranal uses the PARSEC dye laser developed by MPE-Garching and MPIA-Heidelberg, while the launch telescope and the laser laboratory was developed by ESO. "It is great to see the whole system working so well together," emphasises Richard Davies, project manager of the PARSEC laser. "To test the laser guide star adaptive optics system to its limits, and even beyond, we observed a number of galaxies, ranging from a close neighbour to one that is seen when the universe was very young," explains Markus Kasper, the NACO Instrument Scientist at ESO. The first objects that were observed are interacting galaxies. The images obtained reveal exquisite details, and have a resolution comparable to that of the Hubble Space Telescope. In one case, it was possible to derive for the first time the motion of the stars in two merging galaxies, showing that there are two counter-rotating discs of stars. "The enhanced resolution that laser guide star adaptive optics provides is certain to bring important new discoveries in this exciting area," says Davies ESO PR Photo 27c/07 ESO PR Photo 27c/07 Merging System Arp 220 (SINFONI-LGS/VLT) The astronomers then turned the laser to a galaxy called K20-ID5 which is at a redshift of 2.2 - we are seeing this galaxy when the universe was less than 1/3 of its current age. The image obtained with NACO shows that the stars are concentrated in a much more compact region than the gas. "These observations are both remarkable and exciting," declares Kasper. "They are the first time that it has been possible to trace in such detail the distributions of both the stars and the gas at an epoch where we are witnessing the formation of galaxies similar to our own Milky Way." At the opposite extreme, much nearer to home, LGS-AO observations were made of the active galaxy NGC 4945. The new LGS observations with NACO resolved the central parts into a multitude of individual stars. "It is in galaxies such as these where we can really quantify the star formation history in the vicinity of the nucleus, that we can start to piece together the puzzle of how gas is accreted onto the supermassive black hole, and understand how and when these black holes light up so brightly," says Davies. ESO PR Photo 27e/07 ESO PR Photo 27e/07 Active Galaxy NGC 4945 (NACO-LGS/VLT) Still closer to home, the LGS system can also be applied to solar system objects, such as asteroids or satellites, but also to the study of particular regions of spatially extended bodies like the polar regions of giant planets, where aurora activity is concentrated. During their science verification, the scientists turned the SINFONI instrument with the LGS to a Trans-Neptunian Object, 2003 EL 61. The high image contrast and sensitivity obtained with the use of the LGS mode permit the detection of the two faint satellites known to orbit the TNO. "From such observations one can study the chemical composition of the surface material of the TNO and its satellites (mainly crystalline water ice), estimate their surface properties and constrain their internal structure," explains Christophe Dumas, from ESO. The VLT Laser Guide System is the result of a collaborative work by a team of scientists and engineers from ESO and the Max Planck Institutes for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching and for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. NACO was built by a Consortium of French and German institutes and ESO. SINFONI was built by a Consortium of German and Dutch Institutes and ESO. More Information Normally, the achievable image sharpness of a ground-based telescope is limited by the effect of atmospheric turbulence. This drawback can be surmounted with adaptive optics, allowing the telescope to produce images that are as sharp as if taken from space. This means that finer details in astronomical objects can be studied, and also that fainter objects can be observed. In order to work, adaptive optics needs a nearby reference star that has to be relatively bright, thereby limiting the area of the sky that can be surveyed to a few percent only. To overcome this limitation, astronomers use a powerful laser that creates an artificial star, where and when they need it. The laser beam takes advantage of the layer of sodium atoms that is present in Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 90 kilometres. Shining at a well-defined wavelength the laser makes it glow. The laser is launched from Yepun, the fourth 8.2-m Unit Telescope of the Very Large Telescope, producing an artificial star. Despite this star being about 20 times fainter than the faintest star that can be seen with the unaided eye, it is bright enough for the adaptive optics to measure and correct the atmosphere's blurring effect. Compared to a normal star, this artificial star has some differing properties that the associated Laser Guide Star (LGS) Adaptive Optics (AO) system has to be able to cope with. A press release, in English and German, is also available from the Max-Planck Institute.

Image improvement from a sodium-layer laser guide star adaptive optics system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Max, C. E., LLNL

1997-06-01

A sodium-layer laser guide star beacon with high-order adaptive optics at Lick Observatory produced a factor of 2.4 intensity increase and a factor of 2 decrease in full width at half maximum for an astronomical point source, compared with image motion compensation alone. Image full widths at half maximum were identical for laser and natural guide stars (0.3 arc seconds). The Strehl ratio with the laser guide star was 65% of that with a natural guide star. This technique should allow ground-based telescopes to attain the diffraction limit, by correcting for atmospheric distortions.

Integrated Baseline System (IBS). Version 1.03, System Management Guide

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Williams, J.R.; Bailey, S.; Bower, J.C.

This IBS System Management Guide explains how to install or upgrade the Integrated Baseline System (IBS) software package. The IBS is an emergency management planning and analysis tool that was developed under the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This guide includes detailed instructions for installing the IBS software package on a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) VAX computer from the IBS distribution tapes. The installation instructions include procedures for both first-time installations and upgrades to existing IBS installations. To ensure that the system manager has the background necessary for successful installation of the IBS package, this guide alsomore » includes information on IBS computer requirements, software organization, and the generation of IBS distribution tapes. When special utility programs are used during IBS installation and setups, this guide refers you to the IBS Utilities Guide for specific instructions. This guide also refers you to the IBS Data Management Guide for detailed descriptions of some IBS data files and structures. Any special requirements for installation are not documented here but should be included in a set of installation notes that come with the distribution tapes.« less

MagAO: status and science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morzinski, Katie M.; Close, Laird M.; Males, Jared R.; Hinz, Phil M.; Esposito, Simone; Riccardi, Armando; Briguglio, Runa; Follette, Katherine B.; Pinna, Enrico; Puglisi, Alfio; Vezilj, Jennifer; Xompero, Marco; Wu, Ya-Lin

2016-07-01

"MagAO" is the adaptive optics instrument at the Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. MagAO has a 585-actuator adaptive secondary mirror and 1000-Hz pyramid wavefront sensor, operating on natural guide stars from R-magnitudes of -1 to 15. MagAO has been in on-sky operation for 166 nights since installation in 2012. MagAO's unique capabilities are simultaneous imaging in the visible and infrared with VisAO and Clio, excellent performance at an excellent site, and a lean operations model. Science results from MagAO include the first ground-based CCD image of an exoplanet, demonstration of the first accreting protoplanets, discovery of a new wide-orbit exoplanet, and the first empirical bolometric luminosity of an exoplanet. We describe the status, report the AO performance, and summarize the science results. New developments reported here include color corrections on red guide stars for the wavefront sensor; a new field stop stage to facilitate VisAO imaging of extended sources; and eyepiece observing at the visible-light diffraction limit of a 6.5-m telescope. We also discuss a recent hose failure that led to a glycol coolant leak, and the recovery of the adaptive secondary mirror (ASM) after this recent (Feb. 2016) incident.

KSC-2011-7867

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-16

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Inside a Pegasus booster processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, an overhead crane lifts the first of the fins for the aft end of the Pegasus XL rocket's first stage as technicians guide it into place for installation. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket will launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on the Orbital Sciences’ L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

KSC-2011-7866

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-16

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Inside a Pegasus booster processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, an overhead crane lifts the first of the fins for the aft end of the Pegasus XL rocket's first stage as technicians guide it into place for installation. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket will launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on the Orbital Sciences’ L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

First photometric properties of Dome C, Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chadid, M.; Vernin, J.; Jeanneaux, F.; Mekarnia, D.; Trinquet, H.

2008-07-01

Here we present the first photometric extinction measurements in the visible range performed at Dome C in Antarctica, using PAIX photometer (Photometer AntarctIca eXtinction). It is made with "off the shelf" components, Audine camera at the focus of Blazhko telescope, a Meade M16 diaphragmed down to 15 cm. For an exposure time of 60 s without filter, a 10th V-magnitude star is measured with a precision of 1/100 mag. A first statistics over 16 nights in August 2007 leads to a 0.5 magnitude per air mass extinction, may be due to high altitude cirrus. This rather simple experiment shows that continuous observations can be performed at Dome C, allowing high frequency resolution on pulsation and asteroseismology studies. Light curves of one of RR Lyrae stars: SAra were established. They show the typical trend of a RRLyrae star. A recent sophisticated photometer, PAIX II, has been installed recently at Dome C during polar summer 2008, with a ST10 XME camera, automatic guiding, auto focusing and Johnson/Bessel UBVRI filter wheels.

ARGOS - the Laser Star Adaptive Optics for LBT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabien, S.; Barl, L.; Beckmann, U.; Blümchen, T.; Bonaglia, M.; Borelli, J. L.; Brynnel, J.; Busoni, L.; Carbonaro, L.; Conot, C.; Davies, R.; Deysenroth, M.; Durney, O.; Elberich, M.; Esposito, S.; Gasho, V.; Gässler, W.; Gemperlein, H.; Genzel, R.; Green, R.; Haug, M.; Lloyd Hart, M.; Hubbard, P.; Kanneganti, S.; Kulas, M.; Noenickx, J.; Peter, D.; Quirrenbach, A.; Rademacher, M.; Rix, H. W.; Salinari, P.; Schwab, C.; Storm, J.; Strüder, L.; Thiel, M.; Weigelt, G.; Ziegleder, J.; Orban de Xivry, G.

2011-09-01

We will present the design and status of ARGOS - the Laser Guide Star adaptive optics facility for the Large Binocular Telescope. By projecting a constellation of multiple laser guide stars above each of the 8.4m primary mirrors of the LBT, ARGOS in its ground layer mode will enable a wide field adaptive optics correction for multi object spectroscopy. ARGOS implements high power pulsed green lasers and makes use of Rayleigh scattering for the guide star creation. The geometric relations of this setup in guide star height vs. primary diameter are quite comparable to an ELT with sodium guide stars. The use of LBT's adaptive secondary mirror, gated wavefront sensors, a prime focus calibration system and the laser constellation shows several aspects that may be used as pathfinding technology for the planned ELTs. In already planned upgrade steps with a hybrid Sodium-Rayleigh combination ARGOS will enable MCAO and MOAO implementations at LBT allowing unique astronomical observations.

KSC-2012-3025

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians install one half of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as they continue to process the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. The second half of the fairing stands ready for installation. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

Construction of the STAR Event Plane Detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adams, Joseph

2017-09-01

The Event Plane Detector (EPD) is an upgrade to the STAR experiment at RHIC, providing high granularity and acceptance in the forward (2.2 < |eta| < 5.1) region. This will improve the resolution of the event plane determination and allow selection on the collision centrality at rapidities well-separated from the midrapidity region measured by the STAR Time Projection Chamber (TPC). The EPD consists of two scintillator discs, one at positive and one at negative rapidity, 3.75 m from the center of the TPC. Each disc is segmented into 372 optically isolated tiles, read out by wavelength shifting fibers coupled to silicon photomultipliers. One quarter of a single disc was installed in STAR for the 2017 run for commissioning. In this talk I will discuss the construction of the EPD, the installation of the quarter wheel, and plans for full installation in 2018.

Current status of the laser guide star adaptive optics system for Subaru Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayano, Yutaka; Takami, Hideki; Guyon, Olivier; Oya, Shin; Hattori, Masayuki; Saito, Yoshihiko; Watanabe, Makoto; Murakami, Naoshi; Minowa, Yosuke; Ito, Meguru; Colley, Stephen; Eldred, Michael; Golota, Taras; Dinkins, Matthew; Kashikawa, Nobunari; Iye, Masanori

2008-07-01

The current status and recent results, since last SPIE conference at Orlando in 2006, for the laser guide star adaptive optics system for Subaru Telescope is presented. We had a first light using natural guide star and succeed to launch the sodium laser beam in October 2006. The achieved Strehl ratio on the 10th magnitude star was around 0.5 at K band. We confirmed that the full-width-half-maximum of the stellar point spread function is smaller than 0.1 arcsec even at the 0.9 micrometer wavelehgth. The size of the artificial guide star by the laser beam tuned at the wavelength of 589 nm was estimated to be 10 arcsec. The obtained blurred artificial guide star is caused by the wavefront error on the laser launching telescope. After the first light and first launch, we found that we need to modify and to fix the components, which are temporarily finished. Also components, which were postponed to fabricate after the first light, are required to build newly. All components used by the natural guide star adaptive optics system are finalized recently and we are ready to go on the sky. Next engineering observation is scheduled in August, 2008.

Beam-based measurement of the center of the new STAR pipe

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Robert-Demolaize, G.

During the RHIC Shutdown preceding Run13 for polarized protons, various upgrades were brought to the STAR detector, one of which being the partial installation of the Forward GEM Tracker (FGT). This installation includes a new beam pipe at the center of the detector with an internal radius half the size of what the replaced pipe was, from 40 mm to 20 mm. The following reviews the results of a vertical aperture scans in the STAR interaction region performed at injection energy with both beams, and gives an estimate of the measured transverse offset of the new STAR pipe.

V-TECS Guide for Carpenter.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Charles G.; And Others

This curriculum guide provides materials for a nine-duty course in carpentry. The nine duties are estimating materials, preparing building site, sharpening tools, building and installing foundation forms, installing rough framing, installing roof components, installing exterior finishes, installing interior finishes, and assembling and…

First significant image improvement from a sodium-layer laser guide star adaptive optics system at Lick Observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Olivier, S.S.; Max, C.E.; Friedman, H.W.

1997-07-14

Atmospheric turbulence severely limits the resolution of ground-based telescopes. Adaptive optics can correct for the aberrations caused by the atmosphere, but requires a bright wavefront reference source in close angular proximity to the object being imaged. Since natural reference stars of the necessary brightness are relatively rare, methods of generating artificial reference beacons have been under active investigation for more than a decade. In this paper, we report the first significant image improvement achieved using a sodium-layer laser guide star as a wavefront reference for a high- order adaptive optics system. An artificial beacon was created by resonant scattering frommore » atomic sodium in the mesosphere, at an altitude of 95 km. Using this laser guide star, an adaptive optics system on the 3 m Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory produced a factor of 2.4 increase in peak intensity and a factor of 2 decrease in full width at half maximum of a stellar image, compared with image motion compensation alone. The Strehl ratio when using the laser guide star as the reference was 65% of that obtained with a natural guide star, and the image full widths at half maximum were identical, 0.3 arc sec, using either the laser or the natural guide star. This sodium-layer laser guide star technique holds great promise for the world`s largest telescopes. 24 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab.« less

Recent developments in aircraft protection systems for laser guide star operations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stomski, Paul J.; Murphy, Thomas W.; Campbell, Randy

2012-07-01

The astronomical community's use of high power laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS-AO) systems presents a potential hazard to aviation. Historically, the most common and trusted means of protecting aircraft and their occupants has been the use of safety observers (aka spotters) armed with shut-off switches. These safety observers watch for aircraft at risk and terminate laser propagation before the aircraft can be adversely affected by the laser. Efforts to develop safer and more cost-effective automated aircraft protection systems for use by the astronomical community have been inhibited by both technological and regulatory challenges. This paper discusses recent developments in these two areas. Specifically, with regard to regulation and guidance we discuss the 2011 release of AS-6029 by the SAE as well as the potential impact of RTCA DO-278A. With regard to the recent developments in the technology used to protect aircraft from laser illumination, we discuss the novel Transponder Based Aircraft Detection (TBAD) system being installed at W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO). Finally, we discuss our strategy for evaluating TBAD compliance with the regulations and for seeking appropriate approvals for LGS operations at WMKO using a fully automated, flexibly configured, multi-tier aircraft protection system incorporating this new technology.

NAOMI: a low-order adaptive optics system for the VLT interferometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonté, Frédéric Yves J.; Alonso, Jaime; Aller-Carpentier, Emmanuel; Andolfato, Luigi; Berger, Jean-Philippe; Cortes, Angela; Delplancke-Strobele, Françoise; Donaldson, Rob; Dorn, Reinhold J.; Dupuy, Christophe; Egner, Sebastian E.; Huber, Stefan; Hubin, Norbert; Kirchbauer, Jean-Paul; Le Louarn, Miska; Lilley, Paul; Jolley, Paul; Martis, Alessandro; Paufique, Jérôme; Pasquini, Luca; Quentin, Jutta; Ridings, Robert; Reyes, Javier; Shchkaturov, Pavel; Suarez, Marcos; Phan Duc, Thanh; Valdes, Guillermo; Woillez, Julien; Le Bouquin, Jean-Baptiste; Beuzit, Jean-Luc; Rochat, Sylvain; Vérinaud, Christophe; Moulin, Thibaut; Delboulbé, Alain; Michaud, Laurence; Correia, Jean-Jacques; Roux, Alain; Maurel, Didier; Stadler, Eric; Magnard, Yves

2016-08-01

The New Adaptive Optics Module for Interferometry (NAOMI) will be developed for and installed at the 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) at ESO Paranal. The goal of the project is to equip all four ATs with a low-order Shack- Hartmann adaptive optics system operating in the visible. By improving the wavefront quality delivered by the ATs for guide stars brighter than R = 13 mag, NAOMI will make the existing interferometer performance less dependent on the seeing conditions. Fed with higher and more stable Strehl, the fringe tracker(s) will achieve the fringe stability necessary to reach the full performance of the second-generation instruments GRAVITY and MATISSE.

Artificial guide stars for adaptive optics using unmanned aerial vehicles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basden, A. G.; Brown, Anthony M.; Chadwick, P. M.; Clark, P.; Massey, R.

2018-06-01

Astronomical adaptive optics (AO) systems are used to increase effective telescope resolution. However, they cannot be used to observe the whole sky since one or more natural guide stars of sufficient brightness must be found within the telescope field of view for the AO system to work. Even when laser guide stars are used, natural guide stars are still required to provide a constant position reference. Here, we introduce a technique to overcome this problem by using rotary unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as a platform from which to produce artificial guide stars. We describe the concept that relies on the UAV being able to measure its precise relative position. We investigate the AO performance improvements that can be achieved, which in the cases presented here can improve the Strehl ratio by a factor of at least 2 for a 8 m class telescope. We also discuss improvements to this technique, which is relevant to both astronomical and solar AO systems.

From Dye Laser Factory to Portable Semiconductor Laser: Four Generations of Sodium Guide Star Lasers for Adaptive Optics in Astronomy and Space Situational Awareness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

d'Orgeville, C.; Fetzer, G.

This presentation recalls the history of sodium guide star laser systems used in astronomy and space situational awareness adaptive optics, analysing the impact that sodium laser technology evolution has had on routine telescope operations. While it would not be practical to describe every single sodium guide star laser system developed to date, it is possible to characterize their evolution in broad technology terms. The first generation of sodium lasers used dye laser technology to create the first sodium laser guide stars in Hawaii, California, and Spain in the late 1980's and 1990's. These experimental systems were turned into the first laser guide star facilities to equip medium-to-large diameter adaptive optics telescopes, opening a new era of LGS AO-enabled diffraction-limited imaging from the ground. Although they produced exciting scientific results, these laser guide star facilities were large, power-hungry and messy. In the USA, a second-generation of sodium lasers was developed in the 2000's that used cleaner, yet still large and complex, solid-state laser technology. These are the systems in routine operation at the 8-10m class astronomical telescopes and 4m-class satellite imaging facilities today. Meanwhile in Europe, a third generation of sodium lasers was being developed using inherently compact and efficient fiber laser technology, and resulting in the only commercially available sodium guide star laser system to date. Fiber-based sodium lasers will be deployed at two astronomical telescopes and at least one space debris tracking station this year. Although highly promising, these systems remain significantly expensive and they have yet to demonstrate high performance in the field. We are proposing to develop a fourth generation of sodium lasers: based on semiconductor technology, these lasers could provide the final solution to the problem of sodium laser guide star adaptive optics for all astronomy and space situational awareness applications.

A Large-Telescope Natural Guide Star AO System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Redding, David; Milman, Mark; Needels, Laura

1994-01-01

None given. From overview and conclusion:Keck Telescope case study. Objectives-low cost, good sky coverage. Approach--natural guide star at 0.8um, correcting at 2.2um.Concl- Good performance is possible for Keck with natural guide star AO system (SR>0.2 to mag 17+).AO-optimized CCD should b every effective. Optimizing td is very effective.Spatial Coadding is not effective except perhaps at extreme low light levels.

Sky coverage modeling for the whole sky for laser guide star multiconjugate adaptive optics.

PubMed

Wang, Lianqi; Andersen, David; Ellerbroek, Brent

2012-06-01

The scientific productivity of laser guide star adaptive optics systems strongly depends on the sky coverage, which describes the probability of finding natural guide stars for the tip/tilt wavefront sensor(s) to achieve a certain performance. Knowledge of the sky coverage is also important for astronomers planning their observations. In this paper, we present an efficient method to compute the sky coverage for the laser guide star multiconjugate adaptive optics system, the Narrow Field Infrared Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS), being designed for the Thirty Meter Telescope project. We show that NFIRAOS can achieve more than 70% sky coverage over most of the accessible sky with the requirement of 191 nm total rms wavefront.

Polarization switching of sodium guide star laser for brightness enhancement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Tingwei; Zhou, Tianhua; Feng, Yan

2016-07-01

The efficiency of optical pumping that enhances the brightness of sodium laser guide star with circularly polarized light is reduced substantially due to the precession of sodium atoms in geomagnetic field. Switching the laser between left and right circular polarization at the Larmor frequency is proposed to improve the photon return. With ESO's cw laser guide star system at Paranal as example, numerical simulation for both square-wave and sine-wave polarization modulation is conducted. For the square-wave switching case, the return flux is increased when the angle between geomagnetic field and laser beam is larger than 60°, as much as 40% at 90°. The method can also be applied for remote measurement of magnetic field with available cw guide star laser.

Guide star targeting success for the HEAO-B observatory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Farrenkopf, R. L.; Hoffman, D. P.

1977-01-01

The statistics associated with the successful selection and acquisition of guide stars as attitude benchmarks for use in reorientation maneuvers of the HEAO-B observatory are considered as a function of the maneuver angle, initial attitude uncertainties, and the pertinent celestial region. Success likelihoods in excess of 0.99 are predicted assuming anticipated gyro and star tracker error sources. The maneuver technique and guide star selection constraints are described in detail. The results presented are specialized numerically to the HEAO-B observatory. However, the analytical techniques developed are considered applicable to broader classes of spacecraft requiring celestial targeting.

Guide-star-based computational adaptive optics for broadband interferometric tomography

PubMed Central

Adie, Steven G.; Shemonski, Nathan D.; Graf, Benedikt W.; Ahmad, Adeel; Scott Carney, P.; Boppart, Stephen A.

2012-01-01

We present a method for the numerical correction of optical aberrations based on indirect sensing of the scattered wavefront from point-like scatterers (“guide stars”) within a three-dimensional broadband interferometric tomogram. This method enables the correction of high-order monochromatic and chromatic aberrations utilizing guide stars that are revealed after numerical compensation of defocus and low-order aberrations of the optical system. Guide-star-based aberration correction in a silicone phantom with sparse sub-resolution-sized scatterers demonstrates improvement of resolution and signal-to-noise ratio over a large isotome. Results in highly scattering muscle tissue showed improved resolution of fine structure over an extended volume. Guide-star-based computational adaptive optics expands upon the use of image metrics for numerically optimizing the aberration correction in broadband interferometric tomography, and is analogous to phase-conjugation and time-reversal methods for focusing in turbid media. PMID:23284179

Solar Energy Installers Curriculum Guide. Final Report, September 18, 1980-August 15, 1981.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seaman, George B., Sr.

This publication is a curriculum guide for the installation of solar equipment. It is divided into the three major areas of general knowledge, technical design, and installation/maintenance. Associated is a list of relevant and prerequisite competencies identified as appropriate toward student interest groups of technician, installer,…

Atmospheric turbulence compensation with laser phase shifting interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabien, S.; Eisenhauer, F.; Genzel, R.; Davies, R. I.; Ott, T.

2006-04-01

Laser guide stars with adaptive optics allow astronomical image correction in the absence of a natural guide star. Single guide star systems with a star created in the earth's sodium layer can be used to correct the wavefront in the near infrared spectral regime for 8-m class telescopes. For possible future telescopes of larger sizes, or for correction at shorter wavelengths, the use of a single guide star is ultimately limited by focal anisoplanatism that arises from the finite height of the guide star. To overcome this limitation we propose to overlap coherently pulsed laser beams that are expanded over the full aperture of the telescope, traveling upwards along the same path which light from the astronomical object travels downwards. Imaging the scattered light from the resultant interference pattern with a camera gated to a certain height above the telescope, and using phase shifting interferometry we have found a method to retrieve the local wavefront gradients. By sensing the backscattered light from two different heights, one can fully remove the cone effect, which can otherwise be a serious handicap to the use of laser guide stars at shorter wavelengths or on larger telescopes. Using two laser beams multiconjugate correction is possible, resulting in larger corrected fields. With a proper choice of laser, wavefront correction could be expanded to the visible regime and, due to the lack of a cone effect, the method is applicable to any size of telescope. Finally the position of the laser spot could be imaged from the side of the main telescope against a bright background star to retrieve tip-tilt information, which would greatly improve the sky coverage of the system.

Fourier domain preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm for atmospheric tomography.

PubMed

Yang, Qiang; Vogel, Curtis R; Ellerbroek, Brent L

2006-07-20

By 'atmospheric tomography' we mean the estimation of a layered atmospheric turbulence profile from measurements of the pupil-plane phase (or phase gradients) corresponding to several different guide star directions. We introduce what we believe to be a new Fourier domain preconditioned conjugate gradient (FD-PCG) algorithm for atmospheric tomography, and we compare its performance against an existing multigrid preconditioned conjugate gradient (MG-PCG) approach. Numerical results indicate that on conventional serial computers, FD-PCG is as accurate and robust as MG-PCG, but it is from one to two orders of magnitude faster for atmospheric tomography on 30 m class telescopes. Simulations are carried out for both natural guide stars and for a combination of finite-altitude laser guide stars and natural guide stars to resolve tip-tilt uncertainty.

Single Fiber Star Couplers. [optical waveguides for spacecraft communication

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Asawa, C. K.

1979-01-01

An ion exchange process was developed and used in the fabrication of state-of-the-art planar star couplers for distribution of optical radiation between optical fibers. An 8 x 8 planar transmission star coupler was packaged for evaluation purposes with sixteen fiber connectors and sixteen pigtails. Likewise a transmission star coupler and an eight-port reflection star coupler with eight-fiber ribbons rigidly attached to these couplers, and a planar coupler with silicon guides and a parallel channel guide with pigtails were also fabricated. Optical measurements of the transmission star couplers are included with a description of the manufacturing process.

Adaptive optics program update at TMT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boyer, C.; Ellerbroek, B.

2016-07-01

The TMT first light AO facility consists of the Narrow Field Infra-Red AO System (NFIRAOS), the associated Laser Guide Star Facility (LGSF) and the AO Executive Software (AOESW). Design, fabrication and prototyping activities of the TMT first light AO systems and their components have significantly ramped up in Canada, China, France, and in the US. NFIRAOS is an order 60 x 60 laser guide star (LGS) multi-conjugate AO (MCAO) system, which provides uniform, diffraction-limited performance in the J, H, and K bands over 34 x 34 arc sec fields with 50 per cent sky coverage at the galactic pole, as required to support the TMT science cases. NFIRAOS includes two deformable mirrors, six laser guide star wavefront sensors, one high order Pyramid WFS for natural guide star AO, and up to three low-order, IR, natural guide star on-instrument wavefront sensors (OIWFS) and four on-detector guide windows (ODGW) within each client instrument. The first light LGSF system includes six sodium lasers to generate the NFIRAOS laser guide stars. In this paper, we will provide an update on the progress in designing, prototyping, fabricating and modeling the TMT first light AO systems and their AO components over the last two years. TMT is continuing with detailed AO modeling to support the design and development of the first light AO systems and components. Major modeling topics studied during the last two years include further studies in the area of pyramid wavefront sensing, high precision astrometry, PSF reconstruction for LGS MCAO, LGSF wavefront error budget and sophisticated low order mode temporal filtering.

Stellar occultation candidates from the guide star catalog. I - Saturn, 1991-1999

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bosh, A. S.; Mcdonald, S. W.

1992-01-01

A list of 203 potential occultations by Saturn and its ring of stars from the HST Guide Star Catalog (GSC) during the years 1991-1999 is presented. This list features many fainter candidates than do current occultation candidate lists for Saturn; these fainter stars can also provide a high signal-to-noise ratio if observed with a large telescope or in the IR where Saturn and its rings have absorption bands. The occultation circumstances are listed, as well as star information found in the GSC.

Calibrations for a MCAO Imaging System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hibon, Pascale; B. Neichel; V. Garrel; R. Carrasco

2017-09-01

"GeMS, the Gemini Multi conjugate adaptive optics System installed at the Gemini South telescope (Cerro Pachon, Chile) started to deliver science since the beginning of 2013. GeMS is using the Multi Conjugate AdaptiveOptics (MCAO) technique allowing to dramatically increase the corrected field of view (FOV) compared to classical Single Conjugated Adaptive Optics (SCAO) systems. It is the first sodium-based multi-Laser Guide Star (LGS) adaptive optics system. It has been designed to feed two science instruments: GSAOI, a 4k×4k NIR imager covering 85"×85" with 0.02" pixel scale, and Flamingos-2, a NIR multi-object spectrograph. We present here an overview of the calibrations necessary for reducing and analysing the science datasets obtained with GeMS+GSAOI."

Natural guide-star processing for wide-field laser-assisted AO systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Correia, Carlos M.; Neichel, Benoit; Conan, Jean-Marc; Petit, Cyril; Sauvage, Jean-Francois; Fusco, Thierry; Vernet, Joel D. R.; Thatte, Niranjan

2016-07-01

Sky-coverage in laser-assisted AO observations largely depends on the system's capability to guide on the faintest natural guide-stars possible. Here we give an up-to-date status of our natural guide-star processing tailored to the European-ELT's visible and near-infrared (0.47 to 2.45 μm) integral field spectrograph - Harmoni. We tour the processing of both the isoplanatic and anisoplanatic tilt modes using the spatio-angular approach whereby the wavefront is estimated directly in the pupil plane avoiding a cumbersome explicit layered estimation on the 35-layer profiles we're currently using. Taking the case of Harmoni, we cover the choice of wave-front sensors, the number and field location of guide-stars, the optimised algorithms to beat down angular anisoplanatism and the performance obtained with different temporal controllers under split high-order/low-order tomography or joint tomography. We consider both atmospheric and far greater telescope wind buffeting disturbances. In addition we provide the sky-coverage estimates thus obtained.

Transforming GSC-II Magnitudes into JWST/FGS Count Rates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holfeltz, Sherie T.; Chayer, P.; Nelan, E. P.

2010-01-01

The JWST Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) will provide the positions of guide stars to the spacecraft attitude control system to facilitate the fine pointing of the Observatory. The FGS is an infrared camera operating in an unfiltered passband from 0.6 to 5.3 microns. The ground system will select guide stars from the Guide Star Catalog II (GSC-II), which is an all-sky catalog with three optical passbands (BJ, RF, IN) derived from photographic plates, and from 2MASS. We present a method for predicting a guide star's FGS photon count rate, which is needed to operate the FGS. The method consists of first deriving equations for transforming the GSC-II optical passbands into J, H, and K for stars that are below the 2MASS faint limiting magnitude, based upon fitting the distribution of brighter stars in color-color diagrams using GSC-II and 2MASS photometry. Next, we convolve the BJ, RF, IN and predicted J, H, and K magnitudes (or 2MASS magnitudes if available) for a given star with the wavelength dependent throughput and sensitivity of the telescope and FGS. To estimate the accuracy of this method for stars that are too faint for 2MASS, we compare the predicted J, H, and K magnitudes for a large sample of stars to data from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey (LAS). Using synthetic magnitudes computed from Kurucz models for stars of different spectral types, we show that the method should provide reliable FGS count rates.

On the origin of stars with and without planets. Tc trends and clues to Galactic evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adibekyan, V. Zh.; González Hernández, J. I.; Delgado Mena, E.; Sousa, S. G.; Santos, N. C.; Israelian, G.; Figueira, P.; Bertran de Lis, S.

2014-04-01

We explore a sample of 148 solar-like stars to search for a possible correlation between the slopes of the abundance trends versus condensation temperature (known as the Tc slope) with stellar parameters and Galactic orbital parameters in order to understand the nature of the peculiar chemical signatures of these stars and the possible connection with planet formation. We find that the Tc slope significantly correlates (at more than 4σ) with the stellar age and the stellar surface gravity. We also find tentative evidence that the Tc slope correlates with the mean galactocentric distance of the stars (Rmean), suggesting that those stars that originated in the inner Galaxy have fewer refractory elements relative to the volatiles. While the average Tc slope for planet-hosting solar analogs is steeper than that of their counterparts without planets, this difference probably reflects the difference in their age and Rmean. We conclude that the age and probably the Galactic birth place are determinant to establish the star's chemical properties. Old stars (and stars with inner disk origin) have a lower refractory-to-volatile ratio. Based on observations collected with the HARPS spectrograph at the 3.6-m telescope (072.C-0488(E)), installed at the La Silla Observatory, ESO (Chile), with the UVES spectrograph at the 8-m Very Large Telescope program IDs: 67.C-0206(A), 074.C-0134(A), 075.D-0453(A), installed at the Cerro Paranal Observatory, ESO (Chile), and with the UES spectrograph at the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope, installed at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, on the island of La Palma.Appendix A is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

The Polychromatic Laser Guide Star: the ELP-OA demonstrator at Observatoire de Haute Provence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foy, R.; Chatagnat, M.; Dubet, D.; Éric, P.; Eysseric, J.; Foy, F.-C.; Fusco, T.; Girard, J.; Laloge, A.; Le van Suu, A.; Messaoudi, B.; Perruchot, S.; Richaud, P.; Richaud, Y.; Rondeau, X.; Tallon, M.; Thiébaut, É.; Boër, M.

2007-07-01

The correction of the tilt for adaptive optics devices from the only laser guide star can be done with the polychromatic laser guide star. We report the progress of the first demonstrator of the implementation of this concept, at Observatoire de Haute-Provence. We review the last steps of the feasibility studies, the optimization of the laser parameters, and the studies of the implementation at the OHP 1.52m telescope, including the beam propagation to the lasers room to the mesosphere and the algorithms for tip-tilt measurements.

Guide star probabilities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soneira, R. M.; Bahcall, J. N.

1981-01-01

Probabilities are calculated for acquiring suitable guide stars (GS) with the fine guidance system (FGS) of the space telescope. A number of the considerations and techniques described are also relevant for other space astronomy missions. The constraints of the FGS are reviewed. The available data on bright star densities are summarized and a previous error in the literature is corrected. Separate analytic and Monte Carlo calculations of the probabilities are described. A simulation of space telescope pointing is carried out using the Weistrop north galactic pole catalog of bright stars. Sufficient information is presented so that the probabilities of acquisition can be estimated as a function of position in the sky. The probability of acquiring suitable guide stars is greatly increased if the FGS can allow an appreciable difference between the (bright) primary GS limiting magnitude and the (fainter) secondary GS limiting magnitude.

Inside NuSTAR Nose Cone

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-03-02

A spacecraft technician is performing closeout work inside the fairing that will be installed around NASA Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array NuSTAR spacecraft in a processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

ARGOS wavefront sensing: from detection to correction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orban de Xivry, Gilles; Bonaglia, M.; Borelli, J.; Busoni, L.; Connot, C.; Esposito, S.; Gaessler, W.; Kulas, M.; Mazzoni, T.; Puglisi, A.; Rabien, S.; Storm, J.; Ziegleder, J.

2014-08-01

Argos is the ground-layer adaptive optics system for the Large Binocular Telescope. In order to perform its wide-field correction, Argos uses three laser guide stars which sample the atmospheric turbulence. To perform the correction, Argos has at disposal three different wavefront sensing measurements : its three laser guide stars, a NGS tip-tilt, and a third wavefront sensor. We present the wavefront sensing architecture and its individual components, in particular: the finalized Argos pnCCD camera detecting the 3 laser guide stars at 1kHz, high quantum efficiency and 4e- noise; the Argos tip-tilt sensor based on a quad-cell avalanche photo-diodes; and the Argos wavefront computer. Being in the middle of the commissioning, we present the first wavefront sensing configurations and operations performed at LBT, and discuss further improvements in the measurements of the 3 laser guide star slopes as detected by the pnCCD.

Space-Based Astronomy: An Educator Guide with Activities for Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vogt, Gregory L.

2001-01-01

If you go to the country, far from city lights, you can see about 3,000 stars on a clear night. If your eyes were bigger, you could see many more stars. With a pair of binoculars, an optical device that effectively enlarges the pupil of your eye by about 30 times, the number of stars you can see increases to the tens of thousands. With a medium-sized telescope with a light-collecting mirror 30 centimeters in diameter, you can see hundreds of thousands of stars. With a large observatory telescope, millions of stars become visible. This curriculum guide uses hands-on activities to help students and teachers understand the significance of space-based astronomy--astronomical observations made from outer space. It is not intended to serve as a curriculum. Instead, teachers should select activities from this guide that support and extend existing study. The guide contains few of the traditional activities found in many astronomy guides such as constellation studies, lunar phases, and planetary orbits. It tells, rather, the story of why it is important to observe celestial objects from outer space and how to study the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Teachers are encouraged to adapt these activities for the particular needs of their students. When selected activities from this guide are used in conjunction with traditional astronomy curricula, students benefit from a more complete experience.

Solar Access to Public Capital (SAPC) Working Group: Best Practices in Commercial and Industrial (C&I) Solar Photovoltaic System Installation; Period of Performance: November 28, 2014-September 1, 2015

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Doyle, Chris; Loomans, Len; Truitt, Andrew

2015-12-29

This Best Practices in Commercial and Industrial Solar Photovoltaic System Installation Guide is the second of a series of guides designed to standardize and improve solar asset transparency for investors and rating agencies, provide an industry framework for quality management, and reduce transaction costs in the solar asset securitization process. The Best Practices in C&I PV System Installation Guide is intended to outline the minimum requirements for commercial and industrial solar project developments. Adherence to the guide is voluntary. Providers that adhere to the guide are responsible for self-certifying that they have fulfilled the guide requirements. Investors and rating agenciesmore » should verify compliance.« less

Environmental Control System Installer/Servicer (Residential Air Conditioning Mechanic). V-TECS Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meyer, Calvin F.; Benson, Robert T.

This guide provides job relevant tasks, performance objectives, performance guides, resources, learning activitites, evaluation standards, and achievement testing in the occupation of environmental control system installer/servicer (residential air conditioning mechanic). It is designed to be used with any chosen teaching method. The course…

System administrator`s guide to CDPS. Version 1.0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Didier, B.T.; Portwood, M.H.

The System Administrator`s Guide to CDPS is intended for those responsible for setting up and maintaining the hardware and software of a Common Mapping Standard (CMS) Date Production System (CDPS) installation. This guide assists the system administrator in performing typical administrative functions. It is not intended to replace the Ultrix Documentation Set that should be available for a DCPS installation. The Ultrix Documentation Set will be required to provide details on referenced Ultrix commands as well as procedures for performing Ultrix maintenance functions. There are six major sections in this guide. Section 1 introduces the system administrator to CDPS andmore » describes the assumptions that are made by this guide. Section 2 describes the CDPS platform configuration. Section 3 describes the platform preparation that is required to install the CDPS software. Section 4 describes the CPS software and its installation procedures. Section 5 describes the CDS software and its installation procedures. Section 6 describes various operation and maintenance procedures. Four appendices are also provided. Appendix A contains a list of used acronyms. Appendix B provides a terse description of common Ultrix commands that are used in administrative functions. Appendix C provides sample CPS and CDS configuration files. Appendix D provides a required list and a recommended list of Ultrix software subsets for installation on a CDPS platform.« less

RFA-based 589-nm guide star lasers for ESO VLT: a paradigm shift in performance, operational simplicity, reliability, and maintenance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Friedenauer, Axel; Karpov, Vladimir; Wei, Daoping; Hager, Manfred; Ernstberger, Bernhard; Clements, Wallace R. L.; Kaenders, Wilhelm G.

2012-07-01

Large telescopes equipped with adaptive optics require 20-25W CW 589-nm sources with emission linewidths of ~5 MHz. These Guide Star (GS) lasers should also be highly reliable and simple to operate and maintain for many years at the top of a mountain facility. Under contract from ESO, industrial partners TOPTICA and MPBC are nearing completion of the development of GS lasers for the ESO VLT, with delivery of the first of four units scheduled for December 2012. We report on the design and performance of the fully-engineered Pre-Production Unit (PPU), including system reliability/availability analysis, the successfully-concluded qualification testing, long-term component and system level tests and long-term maintenance and support planning. The chosen approach is based on ESO's patented narrow-band Raman Fiber Amplifier (EFRA) technology. A master oscillator signal from a linearly-polarized TOPTICA 20-mW, 1178-nm CW diode laser, with stabilized emission frequency and controllable linewidth up to a few MHz, is amplified in an MPBC polarization-maintaining (PM) RFA pumped by a high-power 1120-nm PM fiber laser. With efficient stimulated Brillouin scattering suppression, an unprecedented 40W of narrow-band RFA output has been obtained. This is then mode-matched into a resonant-cavity doubler with a free-spectral-range matching the sodium D2a to D2b separation, allowing simultaneous generation of an additional frequency component (D2b line) to re-pump the sodium atom electronic population. With this technique, the return flux can be increased without having to resort to electro-optical modulators and without the risk of introducing optical wave front distortions. The demonstrated output powers with doubling efficiencies >80% at 589 nm easily exceed the 20W design goal and require less than 700 W of electrical power. In summary, the fiber-based guide star lasers provide excellent beam quality and are modular, turn-key, maintenance-free, reliable, efficient, and ruggedized devices whose compactness allows installation directly onto the launch telescope structure.

Synthetic guide star generation

DOEpatents

Payne, Stephen A [Castro Valley, CA; Page, Ralph H [Castro Valley, CA; Ebbers, Christopher A [Livermore, CA; Beach, Raymond J [Livermore, CA

2008-06-10

A system for assisting in observing a celestial object and providing synthetic guide star generation. A lasing system provides radiation at a frequency at or near 938 nm and radiation at a frequency at or near 1583 nm. The lasing system includes a fiber laser operating between 880 nm and 960 nm and a fiber laser operating between 1524 nm and 1650 nm. A frequency-conversion system mixes the radiation and generates light at a frequency at or near 589 nm. A system directs the light at a frequency at or near 589 nm toward the celestial object and provides synthetic guide star generation.

Synthetic guide star generation

DOEpatents

Payne, Stephen A.; Page, Ralph H.; Ebbers, Christopher A.; Beach, Raymond J.

2004-03-09

A system for assisting in observing a celestial object and providing synthetic guide star generation. A lasing system provides radiation at a frequency at or near 938 nm and radiation at a frequency at or near 1583 nm. The lasing system includes a fiber laser operating between 880 nm and 960 nm and a fiber laser operating between 1524 nm and 1650 nm. A frequency-conversion system mixes the radiation and generates light at a frequency at or near 589 nm. A system directs the light at a frequency at or near 589 nm toward the celestial object and provides synthetic guide star generation.

Daylight operation of a sodium laser guide star

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hart, Michael; Jefferies, Stuart; Murphy, Neil

2016-07-01

We report photometric measurements of a sodium resonance guide star against the daylight sky when observed through a tuned magneto-optical filter (MOF). The MOF comprises a sodium vapor cell in a kilogauss-level magnetic field between crossed polarizers and has a very narrow transmission profile at the sodium D2 resonance of approximately 0.008 nm. Our observations were made with the 1.5 m Kuiper telescope on Mt. Bigelow, AZ, which has a separately mounted guide star laser projecting a circularly polarized single-frequency beam of approximately 6.5 W at 589.16 nm. Both the beam projector and the 1.5 m telescope were pointed close to zenith; the baseline between them is approximately 5 m. Measurements of the guide star were made on the morning of 2016 March 24 using an imaging camera focused on the beacon and looking through the full aperture of the telescope. The guide star flux was estimated at 1.20×106 photon/m2/s while at approximately 45 minutes after sunrise, the sky background through the MOF was 1100 photon/m2/s/arcsec2. We interpret our results in terms of thermal infrared observations with adaptive optics on the next generation of extremely large telescopes now being built.

Development and implementation of the guiding stars nutrition guidance program.

PubMed

Fischer, Leslie M; Sutherland, Lisa A; Kaley, Lori A; Fox, Tracy A; Hasler, Clare M; Nobel, Jeremy; Kantor, Mark A; Blumberg, Jeffrey

2011-01-01

PURPOSE . To describe the collaborative process between a grocery retailer and a panel of nutrition experts used to develop a nutrition guidance system (Guiding Stars) that evaluates the nutrient profile of all edible products in the supermarket, and to report the results of the food and beverage ratings. DESIGN . A collaboration between a private retailer and members of the scientific community that led to the development of a scoring algorithm used to evaluate the nutritional quality of foods and beverages. SETTING/SUBJECTS . Northeast supermarkets (n  =  160). MEASURES . Food and beverage nutrition ratings and distribution of stars across different grocery categories. ANALYSIS . Descriptive statistics for rating distributions were computed. T-tests were conducted to assess differences in mean nutrient values between foods with zero versus three stars or a dichotomized variable representing all foods with one to three stars. RESULTS . All edible grocery items (n  =  27,466) were evaluated, with 23.6% earning at least one star. Items receiving at least one star had lower mean levels of sodium, saturated fat, and sugars and higher amounts of fiber than products not earning stars. CONCLUSION . The Guiding Stars system rates edible products without regard to brand or manufacturer, and provides consumers with a simple tool to quickly identify more nutritious choices while shopping. The low percentage of products qualifying for stars reflects poorly on the food choices available to Americans.

KSC-99pp0495

NASA Image and Video Library

1999-05-04

While a crane lifts NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite, workers at Hangar AE, Cape Canaveral Air Station, help guide it toward the circular Payload Attach Fitting (PAF) in front of it. FUSE is undergoing a functional test of its systems, plus installation of flight batteries and solar arrays. Developed by The Johns Hopkins University under contract to Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., FUSE will investigate the origin and evolution of the lightest elements in the universe hydrogen and deuterium. In addition, the FUSE satellite will examine the forces and process involved in the evolution of the galaxies, stars and planetary systems by investigating light in the far ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. FUSE is scheduled to be launched May 27 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket at Launch Complex 17

Network Simulation Training Instructor's Guide and Student Handouts. Series #B01038.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oklahoma State Dept. of Vocational and Technical Education, Stillwater. Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center.

This training material provides the reader with information on the installation of and instruction in the use of the on-line Novell Netware V2.15 training software, and consists of an Instructor's Guide and Student Handouts. The instructor's guide includes the following sections: system requirements; installation; starting the tutorial; completing…

KSC-2012-3027

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians install the second half of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as they continue to process the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

KSC-2012-3028

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians install the second half of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as they continue to process the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

KSC-2012-3023

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians install one half of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as they continue to process the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

KSC-2012-3026

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians install the second half of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as they continue to process the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

KSC-2012-3022

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians install one half of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as they continue to process the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

KSC-2012-3029

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians install the second half of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as they continue to process the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

KSC-2012-3021

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians install one half of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as they continue to process the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

KSC-2012-3024

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – Technicians install one half of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as they continue to process the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

KSC-2012-3030

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-22

VANDENBERG AFB, Calif. – A technicians checks the installation of the payload fairing over the NuSTAR spacecraft as processing continues for the spacecraft and its Pegasus rocket for launch. NuSTAR stands for Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin

Visible near-diffraction-limited lucky imaging with full-sky laser-assisted adaptive optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basden, A. G.

2014-08-01

Both lucky imaging techniques and adaptive optics require natural guide stars, limiting sky-coverage, even when laser guide stars are used. Lucky imaging techniques become less successful on larger telescopes unless adaptive optics is used, as the fraction of images obtained with well-behaved turbulence across the whole telescope pupil becomes vanishingly small. Here, we introduce a technique combining lucky imaging techniques with tomographic laser guide star adaptive optics systems on large telescopes. This technique does not require any natural guide star for the adaptive optics, and hence offers full sky-coverage adaptive optics correction. In addition, we introduce a new method for lucky image selection based on residual wavefront phase measurements from the adaptive optics wavefront sensors. We perform Monte Carlo modelling of this technique, and demonstrate I-band Strehl ratios of up to 35 per cent in 0.7 arcsec mean seeing conditions with 0.5 m deformable mirror pitch and full adaptive optics sky-coverage. We show that this technique is suitable for use with lucky imaging reference stars as faint as magnitude 18, and fainter if more advanced image selection and centring techniques are used.

Methods for multiple-telescope beam imaging and guiding in the near-infrared

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anugu, N.; Amorim, A.; Gordo, P.; Eisenhauer, F.; Pfuhl, O.; Haug, M.; Wieprecht, E.; Wiezorrek, E.; Lima, J.; Perrin, G.; Brandner, W.; Straubmeier, C.; Le Bouquin, J.-B.; Garcia, P. J. V.

2018-05-01

Atmospheric turbulence and precise measurement of the astrometric baseline vector between any two telescopes are two major challenges in implementing phase-referenced interferometric astrometry and imaging. They limit the performance of a fibre-fed interferometer by degrading the instrument sensitivity and the precision of astrometric measurements and by introducing image reconstruction errors due to inaccurate phases. A multiple-beam acquisition and guiding camera was built to meet these challenges for a recently commissioned four-beam combiner instrument, GRAVITY, at the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope Interferometer. For each telescope beam, it measures (a) field tip-tilts by imaging stars in the sky, (b) telescope pupil shifts by imaging pupil reference laser beacons installed on each telescope using a 2 × 2 lenslet and (c) higher-order aberrations using a 9 × 9 Shack-Hartmann. The telescope pupils are imaged to provide visual monitoring while observing. These measurements enable active field and pupil guiding by actuating a train of tip-tilt mirrors placed in the pupil and field planes, respectively. The Shack-Hartmann measured quasi-static aberrations are used to focus the auxiliary telescopes and allow the possibility of correcting the non-common path errors between the adaptive optics systems of the unit telescopes and GRAVITY. The guiding stabilizes the light injection into single-mode fibres, increasing sensitivity and reducing the astrometric and image reconstruction errors. The beam guiding enables us to achieve an astrometric error of less than 50 μas. Here, we report on the data reduction methods and laboratory tests of the multiple-beam acquisition and guiding camera and its performance on-sky.

Improved compensation of atmospheric turbulence effects by multiple adaptive mirror systems.

PubMed

Shamir, J; Crowe, D G; Beletic, J W

1993-08-20

Optical wave-front propagation in a layered model for the atmosphere is analyzed by the use of diffraction theory, leading to a novel approach for utilizing artificial guide stars. Considering recent observations of layering in the atmospheric turbulence, the results of this paper indicate that, even for very large telescopes, a substantial enlargement of the compensated angular field of view is possible when two adaptive mirrors and four or five artificial guide stars are employed. The required number of guide stars increases as the thickness of the turbulent layers increases, converging to the conventional results at the limit of continuously turbulent atmosphere.

Recent Science and Engineering Results with the Laser Guidestar Adaptive Optics System at Lick Observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gavel, D T; Gates, E; Max, C

2002-10-17

The Lick Observatory laser guide star adaptive optics system has undergone continual improvement and testing as it is being integrated as a facility science instrument on the Shane 3 meter telescope. Both Natural Guide Star (NGS) and Laser Guide Star (LGS) modes are now used in science observing programs. We report on system performance results as derived from data taken on both science and engineering nights and also describe the newly developed on-line techniques for seeing and system performance characterization. We also describe the future enhancements to the Lick system that will enable additional science goals such as long-exposure spectroscopy.

Laser Guidestar Satellite for Ground-based Adaptive Optics Imaging of Geosynchronous Satellites and Astronomical Targets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marlow, W. A.; Cahoy, K.; Males, J.; Carlton, A.; Yoon, H.

2015-12-01

Real-time observation and monitoring of geostationary (GEO) satellites with ground-based imaging systems would be an attractive alternative to fielding high cost, long lead, space-based imagers, but ground-based observations are inherently limited by atmospheric turbulence. Adaptive optics (AO) systems are used to help ground telescopes achieve diffraction-limited seeing. AO systems have historically relied on the use of bright natural guide stars or laser guide stars projected on a layer of the upper atmosphere by ground laser systems. There are several challenges with this approach such as the sidereal motion of GEO objects relative to natural guide stars and limitations of ground-based laser guide stars; they cannot be used to correct tip-tilt, they are not point sources, and have finite angular sizes when detected at the receiver. There is a difference between the wavefront error measured using the guide star compared with the target due to cone effect, which also makes it difficult to use a distributed aperture system with a larger baseline to improve resolution. Inspired by previous concepts proposed by A.H. Greenaway, we present using a space-based laser guide starprojected from a satellite orbiting the Earth. We show that a nanosatellite-based guide star system meets the needs for imaging GEO objects using a low power laser even from 36,000 km altitude. Satellite guide star (SGS) systemswould be well above atmospheric turbulence and could provide a small angular size reference source. CubeSatsoffer inexpensive, frequent access to space at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems, and are now being deployed to geostationary orbits and on interplanetary trajectories. The fundamental CubeSat bus unit of 10 cm cubed can be combined in multiple units and offers a common form factor allowing for easy integration as secondary payloads on traditional launches and rapid testing of new technologies on-orbit. We describe a 6U CubeSat SGS measuring 10 cm x 20 cm x 30 cm with laser power on the order of milliwatts, and a commercial off the shelf based attitude determination and control system, among others. Different from standard 1U and 3U buses, the 6U form factor allows for a propulsion system for navigating around multiple targets in the GEO belt.

Global Positioning System: A Guide for the Approval of GPS Receiver Installation and Operation

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-10-01

This guide is designed to assist Federal Aviation Adalnlatratlon (FAA) Aviation Safety : Inspectors (ASIs) in evaluating new Global Positioning Systena (GPS) installations and : operations. Because there aro aany documents providing Information, regu...

Design, development, and testing of the DCT Cassegrain instrument support assembly

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bida, Thomas A.; Dunham, Edward W.; Nye, Ralph A.; Chylek, Tomas; Oliver, Richard C.

2012-09-01

The 4.3m Discovery Channel Telescope delivers an f/6.1 unvignetted 0.5° field to its RC focal plane. In order to support guiding, wavefront sensing, and instrument installations, a Cassegrain instrument support assembly has been developed which includes a facility guider and wavefront sensor package (GWAVES) and multiple interfaces for instrumentation. A 2-element, all-spherical, fused-silica corrector compensates for field curvature and astigmatism over the 0.5° FOV, while reducing ghost pupil reflections to minimal levels. Dual roving GWAVES camera probes pick off stars in the outer annulus of the corrected field, providing simultaneous guiding and wavefront sensing for telescope operations. The instrument cube supports 5 co-mounted instruments with rapid feed selection via deployable fold mirrors. The corrected beam passes through a dual filter wheel before imaging with the 6K x 6K single CCD of the Large Monolithic Imager (LMI). We describe key development strategies for the DCT Cassegrain instrument assembly and GWAVES, including construction of a prime focus test assembly with wavefront sensor utilized in fall 2011 to begin characterization of the DCT primary mirror support. We also report on 2012 on-sky test results of wavefront sensing, guiding, and imaging with the integrated Cassegrain cube.

Going Dotty: a practical guide for installing new hand hygiene products.

PubMed

Bush, Kathryn; Mah, Manuel W; Meyers, Gwyneth; Armstrong, Pamela; Stoesz, Janice; Strople, Sally

2007-12-01

This report distills our experiences coordinating the installation of a new commercial line of hand hygiene products in a large, integrated health care region in Western Canada into a practical guide that can benefit infection control professionals. Some key considerations while managing such a large hand hygiene products installation are stakeholder collaboration, management of occupational hand dermatitis, housekeeping support, and communication.

32 CFR Appendix C to Part 247 - Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides, and Installation Maps; Sales and Distribution of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

..., and Installation Maps; Sales and Distribution of Non-DoD Publications C Appendix C to Part 247...) MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES AND CIVILIAN ENTERPRISE PUBLICATIONS Pt. 247, App. C Appendix C to Part 247—Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides, and Installation Maps; Sales and...

Star Ware: The Amateur Astronomer's Guide to Choosing, Buying, and Using Telescopes and Accessories, 3rd Edition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harrington, Philip S.

2002-05-01

Praise for the Second Edition of Star Ware "Star Ware is still a tour de force that any experienced amateur will find invaluable, and which hardware-minded beginners will thoroughly enjoy." -Robert Burnham, Sky & Telescope magazine "Star Ware condenses between two covers what would normally take a telescope buyer many months to accumulate." -John Shibley, Astronomy magazine Now more than ever, the backyard astronomer has a dazzling array of choices when it comes to telescope shopping-which can make choosing just the right sky-watching equipment a formidable challenge. In this revised and updated edition of Star Ware, the essential guide to buying astronomical equipment, award-winning astronomy writer Philip Harrington does the work for you, analyzing and exploring today's astronomy market and offering point-by-point comparisons of everything you need. Whether you're an experienced amateur astronomer or just getting started, Star Ware, Third Edition will prepare you to explore the farthest reaches of space with: Extensive, expanded reviews of leading models and accessories, including dozens of new products, to help you buy smart

H-α profile of M-type red giant stars by using astronomical spectroscopy technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saadon, Mohd Hafiz Mohd; Zainuddin, Mohd Zambri

2013-05-01

The technique of spectroscopy in astronomy is a research or a method which uses spectrum lines emitted by a body that emit electromagnetic ray. These lines will be used to determine the characteristics of any celestial body and one of the most dominant lines is H-α line. The research has been using 20RC Carbon Truss Ritchey-Chrétien telescope, SBIG Self Guided Spectrograph (SGS) with high resolution camera Couple-Charged Device CCD ST-7E. Since H-α line is to be found at 6562.817 Å, neon lamp is being used as calibration because of the obvious lines of this element is in the higher range of visible wavelength, from 5800 to 7500 Å. The software: TheSky and CCDSoft are being used for collecting and analyzing observed data while IRAF which being installed on LINUX interface are used to process the collected data. The data were processed to measure the full width half maximum (FHWM) and equivalent width (EW) for H-α line for each star. Seven M-type red giants that have been chosen are HD 80493, HD 148478, HD 39801, HD 112300, HD 101153, HD 156014 and HD 148783.

Solar Energy Installers Curriculum Guides. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Gene C.

A project was conducted to develop solar energy installers curriculum guides for use in high school vocational centers and community colleges. Project activities included researching job competencies for the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning industry and determining through interviews and manufacturers' literature what additional…

Book Review: Stars (Copyright 1985, Golden Press; New York)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marigza, R. N., Jr.

2009-06-01

Stars is a part of the Golden Guides collection produced by Golden Press. It is a small 160 page paperback guide to the constellations, the sun, the moon, planets, and other celestial bodies. The book is convenient to carry along wherever you go, making it an easy to access reference material.

32 CFR Appendix C to Part 247 - Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides, and Installation Maps; Sales and Distribution of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 32 National Defense 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides...) MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES AND CIVILIAN ENTERPRISE PUBLICATIONS Pt. 247, App. C Appendix C to Part 247—Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides, and Installation Maps; Sales and...

32 CFR Appendix C to Part 247 - Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides, and Installation Maps; Sales and Distribution of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 32 National Defense 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides...) MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES AND CIVILIAN ENTERPRISE PUBLICATIONS Pt. 247, App. C Appendix C to Part 247—Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides, and Installation Maps; Sales and...

32 CFR Appendix C to Part 247 - Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides, and Installation Maps; Sales and Distribution of...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 32 National Defense 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides...) MISCELLANEOUS DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES AND CIVILIAN ENTERPRISE PUBLICATIONS Pt. 247, App. C Appendix C to Part 247—Mailing of DoD Newspapers, Magazines, CE Guides, and Installation Maps; Sales and...

Layer-oriented simulation tool.

PubMed

Arcidiacono, Carmelo; Diolaiti, Emiliano; Tordi, Massimiliano; Ragazzoni, Roberto; Farinato, Jacopo; Vernet, Elise; Marchetti, Enrico

2004-08-01

The Layer-Oriented Simulation Tool (LOST) is a numerical simulation code developed for analysis of the performance of multiconjugate adaptive optics modules following a layer-oriented approach. The LOST code computes the atmospheric layers in terms of phase screens and then propagates the phase delays introduced in the natural guide stars' wave fronts by using geometrical optics approximations. These wave fronts are combined in an optical or numerical way, including the effects of wave-front sensors on measurements in terms of phase noise. The LOST code is described, and two applications to layer-oriented modules are briefly presented. We have focus on the Multiconjugate adaptive optics demonstrator to be mounted upon the Very Large Telescope and on the Near-IR-Visible Adaptive Interferometer for Astronomy (NIRVANA) interferometric system to be installed on the combined focus of the Large Binocular Telescope.

The 2005 HST Calibration Workshop Hubble After the Transition to Two-Gyro Mode

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koekemoer, Anton M. (Editor); Goodfrooij, Paul (Editor); Dressel, Linda L. (Editor)

2006-01-01

The 2005 HST Calibration Workshop was held at the Space Telescope Science Institute during October 26, 2005 to bring together members of the observing community, the instrument development teams, and the STScI instrument support teams to share information and techniques. Presentations included the two-gyro performance of HST and FGS, advances in the calibration of a number of instruments, the results of other instruments after their return from space, and the status of still others which are scheduled for installation during the next servicing mission. Cross-calibration between HST and JWST was discussed, as well as the new Guide Star Catalog and advances in data analysis software. This book contains the published record of the workshop, while all the talks and posters are available electronically on the workshop Web site.

75 FR 54921 - Withdrawal of Regulatory Guides 1.38, 1.94, and 1.116

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-09

....116, ``Quality Assurance Requirements for Installation, Inspection, and Testing of Mechanical....116, ``Quality Assurance Requirements for Installation, Inspection, and Testing of Mechanical Equipment and Systems,'' dated May 1977. Regulatory Guide 1.38 endorses the American Society of Mechanical...

Robust remote-pumping sodium laser for advanced LIDAR and guide star applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ernstberger, Bernhard; Enderlein, Martin; Friedenauer, Axel; Schwerdt, Robin; Wei, Daoping; Karpov, Vladimir; Leisching, Patrick; Clements, Wallace R. L.; Kaenders, Wilhelm G.

2015-10-01

The performance of large ground-based optical telescopes is limited due to wavefront distortions induced by atmospheric turbulence. Adaptive optics systems using natural guide stars with sufficient brightness provide a practical way for correcting the wavefront errors by means of deformable mirrors. Unfortunately, the sky coverage of bright stars is poor and therefore the concept of laser guide stars was invented, creating an artificial star by exciting resonance fluorescence from the mesospheric sodium layer about 90 km above the earth's surface. Until now, mainly dye lasers or sumfrequency mixing of solid state lasers were used to generate laser guide stars. However, these kinds of lasers require a stationary laser clean room for operation and are extremely demanding in maintenance. Under a development contract with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and W. M. Keck Observatory (WMKO), TOPTICA Photonics AG and its partner MPB Communications have finalized the development of a next-generation sodium guide star laser system which is available now as a commercial off-the-shelf product. The laser is based on a narrow-band diode laser, Raman fiber amplifier (RFA) technology and resonant second-harmonic generation (SHG), thus highly reliable and simple to operate and maintain. It emits > 22 W of narrow-linewidth (≈ 5 MHz) continuous-wave radiation at sodium resonance and includes a re-pumping scheme for boosting sodium return flux. Due to the SHG resonator acting as spatial mode filter and polarizer, the output is diffraction-limited with RMS wavefront error < λ/25. Apart from this unique optical design, a major effort has been dedicated to integrating all optical components into a ruggedized system, providing a maximum of convenience and reliability for telescope operators. The new remote-pumping architecture allows for a large spatial separation between the main part of the laser and the compact laser head. Together with a cooling-water flow of less than 5 l/min and an overall power consumption of < 700 W, the system offers a maximum of flexibility with minimal infrastructure demands on site. Each system is built in a modular way, based on the concept of line-replaceable units (LRU). A comprehensive system software, as well as an intuitive service GUI, allow for remote control and error tracking down to at least the LRU level. In case of a failure, any LRU can be easily replaced. With these fiber-based guide star lasers, TOPTICA for the first time offers a fully engineered, off-the-shelf guide star laser system for groundbased optical telescopes providing convenient, turn-key operation in remote and harsh locations. Reliability and flexibility will be beneficial in particular for advanced satellite and space debris tracking as well as LIDAR applications.

Performance and function of a high-speed multiple star topology image management system at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale.

PubMed

Pavlicek, W; Zavalkovskiy, B; Eversman, W G

1999-05-01

Mayo Clinic Scottsdale (MCS) is a busy outpatient facility (150,000 examinations per year) connected via asynchronous transfer mode (ATM; OC-3 155 MB/s) to a new Mayo Clinic Hospital (178 beds) located more than 12 miles distant. A primary care facility staffed by radiology lies roughly halfway between the hospital and clinic connected to both. Installed at each of the three locations is a high-speed star topology image network providing direct fiber connection (160 MB/s) from the local image storage unit (ISU) to the local radiology and clinical workstations. The clinic has 22 workstations in its star, the hospital has 13, and the primary care practice has two. In response to Mayo's request for a seamless service among the three locations, the vendor (GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI) provided enhanced connectivity capability in a two-step process. First, a transfer gateway (TGW) was installed, tested, and implemented to provide the needed communication of the examinations generated at the three sites. Any examinations generated at either the hospital or the primary care facility (specified as the remote stars) automatically transfer their images to the ISU at the clinic. Permanent storage (Kodak optical jukebox, Rochester, NY) is only connected to the hub (Clinic) star. Thus, the hub ISU is provided with a copy of all examinations, while the two remote ISUs maintain local exams. Prefetching from the archive is intelligently accomplished during the off hours only to the hub star, thus providing the remote stars with network dependent access to comparison images. Image transfer is possible via remote log-on. The second step was the installation of an image transfer server (ITS) to replace the slower Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM)-based TGW, and a central higher performance database to replace the multiple database environment. This topology provides an enterprise view of the images at the three locations, while maintaining the high-speed performance of the local star connection to what is now called the short-term storage (STS). Performance was measured and 25 chest examinations (17 MB each) transferred in just over 4 minutes. Integration of the radiology information management system (RIMS) was modified to provide location-specific report and examination interfaces, thereby allowing local filtering of the worklist to remote and near real-time consultation, and remote examination monitoring of modalities are addressed with this technologic approach. The installation of the single database ITS environment has occurred for testing prior to implementation.

Consumers' Response to an On-Shelf Nutrition Labelling System in Supermarkets: Evidence to Inform Policy and Practice.

PubMed

Hobin, Erin; Bollinger, Bryan; Sacco, Jocelyn; Liebman, Eli; Vanderlee, Lana; Zuo, Fei; Rosella, Laura; L'abbe, Mary; Manson, Heather; Hammond, David

2017-09-01

Policy Points: On-shelf nutrition labelling systems in supermarkets, such as the Guiding Stars system, are intended to provide consumers with simple, standardized nutrition information to support more informed and healthier food choices. Policies that support the provision of simplified nutrition labelling systems may encourage consumers to make positive shifts in food-purchasing behaviors. The shifts in consumer food-purchasing patterns observed in our study after the introduction of the Guiding Stars system in supermarkets translated into measurable nutritional benefits, including more items purchased with slightly less trans fat and sugar and more fiber and omega-3 fatty acids. This study is one of the first to report the positive impact of an on-shelf nutrition labelling system on supermarket sales and revenues-key information that was specifically requested by the US National Academies, as such labelling interventions may be more sustainable if they lead to higher revenues. Providing a nutrition rating system on the front of food packages or on retail shelf tags has been proposed as a policy strategy for supporting healthier food choices. Guiding Stars is an on-shelf nutrition labelling system that scores foods in a supermarket based on nutritional quality; scores are then translated into ratings of 0 to 3 stars. It is consistent with evidence-informed recommendations for well-designed labels, except for not labelling 0-star products. The largest supermarket retailer in Canada rolled out the Guiding Stars system in supermarkets across Ontario, Canada. The aim of our study was to examine the extent to which consumers respond to an on-shelf nutrition labelling system in supermarkets to inform current and future nutrition labelling policies and practices. Capitalizing on a natural experiment, we conducted a quasi-experimental study across 3 supermarket banners (or "chains") in Ontario, one of which implemented the Guiding Stars system in 2012. We used aggregated supermarket transaction data to test the effect of Guiding Stars on the nutritional quality of food purchases in intervention supermarkets relative to control supermarkets. We also conducted exit surveys among 783 randomly selected shoppers from intervention and control supermarkets to assess consumer awareness, understanding, trust, and self-reported use of the labelling system. Relative to control supermarkets, shoppers in intervention supermarkets made small but significant shifts toward purchasing foods with higher nutritional ratings; however, shifts varied in direction and magnitude across food categories. These shifts translated into foods being purchased with slightly less trans fat and sugar and more fiber and omega-3 fatty acids. We also found increases in the number of products per transaction, price per product purchased, and total revenues. Results of the exit surveys indicate a modest proportion of consumers were aware of, understood, and trusted Guiding Stars in intervention supermarkets, and a small proportion of consumers reported using this system when making purchasing decisions. However, 47% of shoppers exposed to Guiding Stars were confused when asked to interpret the meaning of a 0-star product that does not display a rating on the shelf tag. This study demonstrates support for policies promoting on-shelf nutrition labels designed according to evidence-informed principles, but policymakers should move forward with caution when investing in such systems until research has confirmed optimal label design, clarified the mechanisms through which dietary intake is improved, and assessed associations with nutrition-related health outcomes. © 2017 Milbank Memorial Fund.

Fiscal Year 2005 Solid Waste Pollution Prevention Annual Data Summary, (SW P2ADS) Guide (User’s Guide)

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-09-01

services were procured? 19. IS YOUR INSTALLATION USING GREEN CLEANING PRODUCTS OR SERVICES? Enter “yes” or “no.” Return to Page 1, GPP INFO Tab...X___ If yes, please explain. 19. IS YOUR INSTALLATION USING GREEN CLEANING PRODUCTS OR SERVICES? (Check one) Yes _X__ No...Yes ____ No ____ If yes, please explain 19. IS YOUR INSTALLATION USING GREEN CLEANING PRODUCTS OR SERVICES? (Check

Optical Alignment of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Star Trackers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hetherington, Samuel; Osgood, Dean; McMann, Joe; Roberts, Viki; Gill, James; Mclean, Kyle

2013-01-01

The optical alignment of the star trackers on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core spacecraft at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) was challenging due to the layout and structural design of the GPM Lower Bus Structure (LBS) in which the star trackers are mounted as well as the presence of the star tracker shades that blocked line-of-sight to the primary star tracker optical references. The initial solution was to negotiate minor changes in the original LBS design to allow for the installation of a removable item of ground support equipment (GSE) that could be installed whenever measurements of the star tracker optical references were needed. However, this GSE could only be used to measure secondary optical reference cube faces not used by the star tracker vendor to obtain the relationship information and matrix transformations necessary to determine star tracker alignment. Unfortunately, due to unexpectedly large orthogonality errors between the measured secondary adjacent cube faces and the lack of cube calibration data, we required a method that could be used to measure the same reference cube faces as originally measured by the vendor. We describe an alternative technique to theodolite auto-collimation for measurement of an optical reference mirror pointing direction when normal incidence measurements are not possible. This technique was used to successfully align the GPM star trackers and has been used on a number of other NASA flight projects. We also discuss alignment theory as well as a GSFC-developed theodolite data analysis package used to analyze angular metrology data.

77 FR 50495 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; Comment Request; Information...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-21

... www.regulations.gov Web site is an ``anonymous access'' system, which means EPA will not know your... public docket that are available electronically. Once in the system, select ``search,'' then key in the... homes under Home Performance with ENERGY STAR and ENERGY STAR's HVAC Quality Installation program...

14 CFR 1203.408 - Assistance by installation security classification officers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Guides for Original Classification § 1203.408 Assistance by installation security classification officers. Installation Security Classification Officers, as the... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2011-01-01 2010-01-01 true Assistance by installation security...

14 CFR 1203.408 - Assistance by installation security classification officers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION SECURITY PROGRAM Guides for Original Classification § 1203.408 Assistance by installation security classification officers. Installation Security Classification Officers, as the... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Assistance by installation security...

78 FR 12054 - Information Collection Request Submitted to OMB for Review and Approval; Comment Request; EPA's...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-21

... ENERGY STAR's HVAC Quality Installation program, sponsors promote the installation of HVAC systems in new... Energy Raters), and the Heating, Ventilation, and Cooling (HVAC) contractor. These organizations complete... (5900-08) Partnership Agreement for HVAC QI Sponsor (5900-183) Partnership Agreement for Home...

America's Star Libraries

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyons, Ray; Lance, Keith Curry

2009-01-01

"Library Journal"'s new national rating of public libraries, the "LJ" Index of Public Library Service, identifies 256 "star" libraries. It rates 7,115 public libraries. The top libraries in each group get five, four, or three Michelin guide-like stars. All included libraries, stars or not, can use their scores to learn from their peers and improve…

Live imaging using adaptive optics with fluorescent protein guide-stars

PubMed Central

Tao, Xiaodong; Crest, Justin; Kotadia, Shaila; Azucena, Oscar; Chen, Diana C.; Sullivan, William; Kubby, Joel

2012-01-01

Spatially and temporally dependent optical aberrations induced by the inhomogeneous refractive index of live samples limit the resolution of live dynamic imaging. We introduce an adaptive optical microscope with a direct wavefront sensing method using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor and fluorescent protein guide-stars for live imaging. The results of imaging Drosophila embryos demonstrate its ability to correct aberrations and achieve near diffraction limited images of medial sections of large Drosophila embryos. GFP-polo labeled centrosomes can be observed clearly after correction but cannot be observed before correction. Four dimensional time lapse images are achieved with the correction of dynamic aberrations. These studies also demonstrate that the GFP-tagged centrosome proteins, Polo and Cnn, serve as excellent biological guide-stars for adaptive optics based microscopy. PMID:22772285

Effects of laser beam propagation and saturation on the spatial shape of sodium laser guide stars.

PubMed

Marc, Fabien; Guillet de Chatellus, Hugues; Pique, Jean-Paul

2009-03-30

The possibility to produce diffraction-limited images by large telescopes through Adaptive Optics is closely linked to the precision of measurement of the position of the guide star on the wavefront sensor. In the case of laser guide stars, many parameters can lead to a strong distortion on the shape of the LGS spot. Here we study the influence of both the saturation of the sodium layer excited by different types of lasers, the spatial quality of the laser mode at the ground and the influence of the atmospheric turbulence on the upward propagation of the laser beam. Both shape and intensity of the LGS spot are found to depend strongly on these three effects with important consequences on the precision on the wavefront analysis.

Progress with the lick adaptive optics system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gavel, D T; Olivier, S S; Bauman, B

2000-03-01

Progress and results of observations with the Lick Observatory Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics System are presented. This system is optimized for diffraction-limited imaging in the near infrared, 1-2 micron wavelength bands. We describe our development efforts in a number of component areas including, a redesign of the optical bench layout, the commissioning of a new infrared science camera, and improvements to the software and user interface. There is also an ongoing effort to characterize the system performance with both natural and laser guide stars and to fold this data into a refined system model. Such a model can bemore » used to help plan future observations, for example, predicting the point-spread function as a function of seeing and guide star magnitude.« less

Improving sodium laser guide star brightness by polarization switching

PubMed Central

Fan, Tingwei; Zhou, Tianhua; Feng, Yan

2016-01-01

Optical pumping with circularly polarized light has been used to enhance the brightness of sodium laser guide star. But the benefit is reduced substantially due to the precession of sodium atoms in geomagnetic field. Switching the laser between left and right circular polarization at the Larmor frequency is proposed to improve the return. With ESO’s laser guide star system at Paranal as example, numerical simulation shows that the return flux is increased when the angle between geomagnetic field and laser beam is larger than 60°, as much as 50% at 90°. The proposal is significant since most astronomical observation is at angle between 60° and 90° and it only requires a minor addition to the delivery optics of present laser system. PMID:26797503

The Profiles in Practice School Reporting Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffin, Patrick

"The Profiles in Practice: School Reporting Software" provides a framework for reports on different aspects of performance in an assessment program. This booklet is the installation guide and user manual for the Profiles in Practice software, which is included as a CD-ROM. The chapters of the guide are: (1) "Installation"; (2) "Starting the…

On-sky performance of the tip-tilt correction system for GLAS using an EMCCD camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skvarč, Jure; Tulloch, Simon

2008-07-01

Adaptive optics systems based on laser guide stars still need a natural guide star (NGS) to correct for the image motion caused by the atmosphere and by imperfect telescope tracking. The ability to properly compensate for this motion using a faint NGS is critical to achieve large sky coverage. For the laser guide system (GLAS) on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope we designed and tested in the laboratory and on-sky a tip-tilt correction system based on a PC running Linux and an EMCCD technology camera. The control software allows selection of different centroiding algorithms and loop control methods as well as the control parameters. Parameter analysis has been performed using tip-tilt only correction before the laser commissioning and the selected sets of parameters were then used during commissioning of the laser guide star system. We have established the SNR of the guide star as a function of magnitude, depending on the image sampling frequency and on the dichroic used in the optical system; achieving a measurable improvement using full AO correction with NGSes down to magnitude range R=16.5 to R=18. A minimum SNR of about 10 was established to be necessary for a useful correction. The system was used to produce 0.16 arcsecond images in H band using bright NGS and laser correction during GLAS commissioning runs.

Solar Access to Public Capital (SAPC) Working Group: Best Practices in PV System Installation; Version 1.0, March 2015; Period of Performance, October 2014 - September 2015

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Doyle, C.; Truitt, A.; Inda, D.

The following Photovoltaics Installation Best Practices Guide is one of several work products developed by the Solar Access to Public Capital (SAPC) working group, which works to open capital market investment. SAPC membership includes over 450 leading solar developers, financiers and capital managers, law firms, rating agencies, accounting and engineering firms, and other stakeholders engaged in solar asset deployment. SAPC activities are directed toward foundational elements necessary to pool project cash flows into tradable securities: standardization of power purchase and lease contracts for residential and commercial end customers; development of performance and credit data sets to facilitate investor due diligencemore » activities; comprehension of risk perceived by rating agencies; and the development of best practice guides for PV system installation and operations and maintenance (O&M) in order to encourage high-quality system deployment and operation that may improve lifetime project performance and energy production. This PV Installation Best Practices Guide was developed through the SAPC Installation Best Practices subcommittee, a subgroup of SAPC comprised of a wide array of solar industry leaders in numerous fields of practice. The guide was developed over roughly one year and eight months of direct engagement by the subcommittee and two working group comment periods.« less

Sprinkler System Installer. Occupational Analyses Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chinien, Chris; Boutin, France

This analysis covers tasks performed by a sprinkler system installer, an occupational title some provinces and territories of Canada have also identified as pipefitter--fire protection mechanic specialty; sprinkler and fire protection installer; sprinkler and fire protection systems installer; and sprinkler fitter. A guide to analysis discusses…

Femtosecond Amplifiers and Microlasers in the Deep Ultraviolet

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-11-19

Laser guide stars have applications of growing importance to the DOD, astronomy, and environmental monitoring. However, realizing a laser that is...pump wavelength, photoassociation-pumped lasers hold considerable promise as guide star lasers . The most exciting aspect of these results, however...highlights of several experiments that were mentioned briefly in the last section. A. Dual Wavelength Sodium Laser Pumped By Na-Xe Pair Absorption

Series production of next-generation guide-star lasers at TOPTICA and MPBC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Enderlein, Martin; Friedenauer, Axel; Schwerdt, Robin; Rehme, Paul; Wei, Daoping; Karpov, Vladimir; Ernstberger, Bernhard; Leisching, Patrick; Clements, Wallace R. L.; Kaenders, Wilhelm G.

2014-07-01

Large telescopes equipped with adaptive optics require high power 589-nm continuous-wave sources with emission linewidths of ~5 MHz. These guide-star lasers should be highly reliable and simple to operate and maintain for many years at the top of a mountain facility. After delivery of the first 20-W systems to our lead customer ESO, TOPTICA and MPBC have begun series production of next-generation sodium guide-star lasers. The chosen approach is based on ESO's patented narrow-band Raman fiber amplifier (RFA) technology [1]. A master oscillator signal from a TOPTICA 50-mW, 1178-nm diode laser, with stabilized emission frequency and linewidth of ~ 1 MHz, is amplified in an MPBC polarization-maintaining (PM) RFA pumped by a high-power 1120-nm PM fiber laser. With efficient stimulated Brillouin scattering suppression, an unprecedented 40 W of narrow-band RFA output has been obtained. This is spatially mode-matched into a patented resonant-cavity frequency doubler providing also the repumper light [2]. With a diffraction-limited output beam and doubling efficiencies < 80%, all ESO design goals have been easily fulfilled. Together with a wall-plug efficiency of < 3%, including all system controls, and a cooling liquid flow of only 5 l/min, the modular, turn-key, maintenance-free and compact system design allows a direct integration with a launch telescope. With these fiber-based guide star lasers, TOPTICA for the first time offers a fully engineered, off-the-shelf guide star laser system for ground-based optical telescopes. Here we present a comparison of test results of the first batch of laser systems, demonstrating the reproducibility of excellent optical characteristics.

Smart tissue anastomosis robot (STAR): a vision-guided robotics system for laparoscopic suturing.

PubMed

Leonard, Simon; Wu, Kyle L; Kim, Yonjae; Krieger, Axel; Kim, Peter C W

2014-04-01

This paper introduces the smart tissue anastomosis robot (STAR). Currently, the STAR is a proof-of-concept for a vision-guided robotic system featuring an actuated laparoscopic suturing tool capable of executing running sutures from image-based commands. The STAR tool is designed around a commercially available laparoscopic suturing tool that is attached to a custom-made motor stage and the STAR supervisory control architecture that enables a surgeon to select and track incisions and the placement of stitches. The STAR supervisory-control interface provides two modes: A manual mode that enables a surgeon to specify the placement of each stitch and an automatic mode that automatically computes equally-spaced stitches based on an incision contour. Our experiments on planar phantoms demonstrate that the STAR in either mode is more accurate, up to four times more consistent and five times faster than surgeons using state-of-the-art robotic surgical system, four times faster than surgeons using manual Endo360(°)®, and nine times faster than surgeons using manual laparoscopic tools.

Flow Simulation of Modified Duct System Wind Turbines Installed on Vehicle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosly, N.; Mohd, S.; Zulkafli, M. F.; Ghafir, M. F. Abdul; Shamsudin, S. S.; Muhammad, W. N. A. Wan

2017-10-01

This study investigates the characteristics of airflow with a flow guide installed and output power generated by wind turbine system being installed on a pickup truck. The wind turbine models were modelled by using SolidWorks 2015 software. In order to investigate the characteristic of air flow inside the wind turbine system, a computer simulation (by using ANSYS Fluent software) is used. There were few models being designed and simulated, one without the rotor installed and another two with rotor installed in the wind turbine system. Three velocities being used for the simulation which are 16.7 m/s (60 km/h), 25 m/s (90 km/h) and 33.33 m/s (120 km/h). The study proved that the flow guide did give an impact to the output power produced by the wind turbine system. The predicted result from this study is the velocity of the air inside the ducting system of the present model is better that reference model. Besides, the flow guide implemented in the ducting system gives a big impact on the characteristics of the air flow.

STIS CHEMICALLY ANALYZES THE RING AROUND SUPERNOVA 1987A

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

he Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) is back at work, capturing this black-and-white image of the 'butterfly wing'-shaped nebula, NGC 2346. The nebula is about 2,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros. It represents the spectacular 'last gasp' of a binary star system at the nebula's center. The image was taken on March 6, as part of the recommissioning of the Hubble Space Telescope's previously installed scientific instruments following the successful servicing of the HST by NASA astronauts in February. WFPC2 was installed in HST during the servicing mission in 1993. At the center of the nebula lies a pair of stars that are so close together that they orbit around each other every 16 days. This is so close that, even with Hubble, the pair of stars cannot be resolved into its two components. One component of this binary is the hot core of a star that has ejected most of its outer layers, producing the surrounding nebula. Astronomers believe that this star, when it evolved and expanded to become a red giant, actually swallowed its companion star in an act of stellar cannibalism. The resulting interaction led to a spiraling together of the two stars, culminating in ejection of the outer layers of the red giant. Most of the outer layers were ejected into a dense disk, which can still be seen in the Hubble image, surrounding the central star. Later the hot star developed a fast stellar wind. This wind, blowing out into the surrounding disk, has inflated the large, wispy hourglass-shaped wings perpendicular to the disk. These wings produce the butterfly appearance when seen in projection. The total diameter of the nebula is about one-third of a light-year, or 2 trillion miles. Our own Sun will eject a nebula about 5 billion years from now. However, the Sun is not a double star, so its nebula may well be more spherical in shape. The image was taken through a filter that shows the light of glowing nitrogen atoms. Scientists are still testing and calibrating the newly installed instruments on Hubble , the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). These instruments will be ready to make observations in a few weeks. Credit: Massimo Stiavelli (STScI), and NASA other team member: Inge Heyer (STScI) Image files in GIF and JPEG format and captions may be accessed on the Internet via anonymous ftp from oposite.stsci.edu in /pubinfo.

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) : Version 2c service Pack 1 : installation guide.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-12-01

This document provides detailed instructions on how to install and run AEDT 2c Service Pack 1 (SP1). It is important to follow the installation instructions in the order listed below, as Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 is a prerequisite for AEDT. Instal...

A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the See, Tilt, Align, and Rotate (STAR) Maneuver on Skill Acquisition for Simulated Ultrasound-Guided Interventional Procedures.

PubMed

Lam, Nicholas C K; Fishburn, Steven J; Hammer, Angie R; Petersen, Timothy R; Gerstein, Neal S; Mariano, Edward R

2015-06-01

Achieving the best view of the needle and target anatomy when performing ultrasound-guided interventional procedures requires technical skill, which novices may find difficult to learn. We hypothesized that teaching novice performers to use 4 sequential steps (see, tilt, align, and rotate [STAR] method) to identify the needle under ultrasound guidance is more efficient than training with the commonly described probe movements of align, rotate, and tilt (ART). This study compared 2 instructional methods for transducer manipulation including alignment of a probe and needle by novices during a simulated ultrasound-guided nerve block. Right-handed volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55 years who had no previous ultrasound experience were recruited and randomized to 1 of 2 groups; one group was trained to troubleshoot misalignment with the ART method, and the other was trained with the new STAR maneuver. Participants performed the task, consisting of directing a needle in plane to 3 targets in a standardized gelatin phantom 3 times. The performance assessor and data analyst were blinded to group assignment. Thirty-five participants were recruited. The STAR group was able to complete the task more quickly (P < .001) and visualized the needle in a greater proportion of the procedure time (P = .004) compared to the ART group. All STAR participants were able to complete the task, whereas 41% of ART participants abandoned the task (P = .003). Novices are able to complete a simulated ultrasound-guided nerve block more quickly and efficiently when trained with the 4-step STAR maneuver compared to the ART method. © 2015 by the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.

The Polychromatic Laser Guide Star for tilt measurement: progress report of the demonstrator at Observatoire de Haute Provence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foy, Renaud; Éric, Pierre; Eysseric, Jérôme; Foy, Françoise; Fusco, Thierry; Girard, Julien; Le Van Suu, Auguste; Perruchot, Sandrine; Richaud, Pierre; Richaud, Yoann; Rondeau, Xavier; Tallon, Michel; Thiébaut, Éric; Boër, Michel

2007-09-01

The Polychromatic Laser Guide Star aims at providing for the tilt measurement from a LGS without any natural guide star. Thus it allows adaptive optics to provide us with a full sky coverage. This is critical in particular to extend adaptive optics to the visible range, where isoplanatism is so small that the probability is negligible to find a natural star to measure the tilt. We report new results obtained within the framework of the Polychromatic LGS programme ELP-OA. Natural stars have been used to mimic the PLGS, in order to check the feasibility of using the difference in the tilt at two wavelengths to derive the tilt itself. We report results from the ATTILA experiment obtained at the 1.52 m telescope at Observatoire de Haute-Provence. Tilts derived from the differential tilts are compared with direct tilt measurements. The accuracy of the measurements is currently ~ 1.5 Airy disk rms at 550 nm. These results prove the feasibility of the Polychromatic Laser Guide Star programme ELP-OA. New algorithms based on inverse problems under development within our programme would lead to smaller error bars by 1 magnitude, as soon as they will run fast enough. We describe the ELP-OA demonstrator which we are setting up at the same telescope, with a special emphasis on the optimization of the excitation process, which definitely has to rely on the two-photon excitation of sodium atoms in the mesosphere. We will describe the implementation at the telescope, including the projector device, the focal instrumentation and the NdYAG pumped dye lasers.

Research of performance prediction to energy on hydraulic turbine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quan, H.; Li, R. N.; Li, Q. F.; Han, W.; Su, Q. M.

2012-11-01

Refer to the low specific speed Francis turbine blade design principle and double-suction pump structure. Then, design a horizontal double-channel hydraulic turbine Francis. Through adding different guide vane airfoil and and no guide vane airfoil on the hydraulic conductivity components to predict hydraulic turbine energy and using Fluent software to numerical simulation that the operating conditions and point. The results show that the blade pressure surface and suction surface pressure is low when the hydraulic turbine installation is added standard positive curvature of the guide vane and modified positive curvature of guide vane. Therefore, the efficiency of energy recovery is low. However, the pressure of negative curvature guide vane and symmetric guide vane added on hydraulic turbine installations is larger than that of the former ones, and it is conducive to working of runner. With the decreasing of guide vane opening, increasing of inlet angle, flow state gets significantly worse. Then, others obvious phenomena are that the reflux and horizontal flow appeared in blade pressure surface. At the same time, the vortex was formed in Leaf Road, leading to the loss of energy. Through analyzing the distribution of pressure, velocity, flow lines of over-current flow in the the back hydraulic conductivity components in above programs we can known that the hydraulic turbine installation added guide vane is more reasonable than without guide vanes, it is conducive to improve efficiency of energy conversion.

Interactive Astronomy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Jean K.

1997-01-01

Presents guiding principles for developing interactive lessons for the World Wide Web. Describes "Amazing Space: Education Online from the Hubble Space Telescope", a program where students study spectacular Hubble Space Telescope images of stars and star-forming regions to learn about the life cycle of stars and the creation of atoms. (JRH)

Installation of surface-mounted flat-conductor cable

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carden, J. R.

1976-01-01

Guide describes step-by-step process for installation of interior surface-mounted FCC used in commerical and residential buildings. Photographs illustrate how cable-riser and baseboard covers are installed as well as receptacle assembly and receptacle-cover replacement.

Star field attitude sensor study for the Pioneer Venus spacecraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rudolf, W. P.; Reed, D. R.

1972-01-01

The characteristics of a star field attitude sensor for use with the Pioneer Venus spacecraft are presented. The aspects of technical feasibility, system interface considerations, and cost of flight hardware development are discussed. The tradeoffs which relate to performance, design, cost, and reliability are analyzed. The configuration of the system for installation in the spacecraft is described.

The Midlands Consortium Star Schools Project: Final Report, Final Evaluation Report, Final Evaluation Report Appendices.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Midlands Consortium.

The reports presented in this document describe the results of the first 2 years of the Midlands Consortium Star Schools Project (MCSSP) (October 1, 1988-December 31, 1990). The first report summarizes the major accomplishments of the MCSSP, including: (1) the installation of communications satellites at schools in Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi,…

A novel double fine guide sensor design on space telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xu-xu; Yin, Da-yi

2018-02-01

To get high precision attitude for space telescope, a double marginal FOV (field of view) FGS (Fine Guide Sensor) is proposed. It is composed of two large area APS CMOS sensors and both share the same lens in main light of sight. More star vectors can be get by two FGS and be used for high precision attitude determination. To improve star identification speed, the vector cross product in inter-star angles for small marginal FOV different from traditional way is elaborated and parallel processing method is applied to pyramid algorithm. The star vectors from two sensors are then used to attitude fusion with traditional QUEST algorithm. The simulation results show that the system can get high accuracy three axis attitudes and the scheme is feasibility.

Stellar Ideas: Exploring Students' Understanding of Stars

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Agan, Lori

2004-01-01

In this study, high school and first-year undergraduate students were asked about their understanding of stars. The hypothesis guiding this research posits that high school students who have taken a semester-long astronomy course will have an understanding of stars most related to scientific knowledge, compared with high school students enrolled…

Articulated, Performance-Based Instruction Objectives Guide for Air Conditioning, Refrigeration, and Heating (Environmental Control System Installer/Servicer). Edition I.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henderson, William Edward, Jr., Ed.

This articulation guide contains 17 units of instruction for the first year of a two-year vocational program designed to prepare the high school graduate to install, maintain, and repair various types of residential and commercial heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration equipment. The units are to introduce the student to fundamental theories…

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

van Dam, M A; Mignant, D L; Macintosh, B A

In this paper, the adaptive optics (AO) system at the W.M. Keck Observatory is characterized. The authors calculate the error budget of the Keck AO system operating in natural guide star mode with a near infrared imaging camera. By modeling the control loops and recording residual centroids, the measurement noise and band-width errors are obtained. The error budget is consistent with the images obtained. Results of sky performance tests are presented: the AO system is shown to deliver images with average Strehl ratios of up to 0.37 at 1.58 {micro}m using a bright guide star and 0.19 for a magnitudemore » 12 star.« less

Lick sodium laser guide star: performance during the 1998 LGS observing campaign

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bauman, B; Friedman, H; Gavel, D T

1999-07-19

The performance of a sodium laser guide star adaptive optics system depends crucially on the characteristics of the laser guide star in the sodium layer. System performance is quite sensitive to sodium layer spot radiance, that is, return per unit sterradian on the sky, hence we have been working to improve projected beam quality via improvements to the laser and changes to the launched beam format. The laser amplifier was reconfigured to a ''bounce-beam'' geometry, which considerably improves wavefront quality and allows a larger round instead of square launch beam aperture. The smaller beacon makes it easier to block themore » unwanted Rayleigh light and improves the accuracy of Hartmann sensor wavefront measurements in the A0 system. We present measurements of the beam quality and of the resulting sodium beacon and compare to similar measurements from last year.« less

Optimal reconstruction for closed-loop ground-layer adaptive optics with elongated spots.

PubMed

Béchet, Clémentine; Tallon, Michel; Tallon-Bosc, Isabelle; Thiébaut, Éric; Le Louarn, Miska; Clare, Richard M

2010-11-01

The design of the laser-guide-star-based adaptive optics (AO) systems for the Extremely Large Telescopes requires careful study of the issue of elongated spots produced on Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors. The importance of a correct modeling of the nonuniformity and correlations of the noise induced by this elongation has already been demonstrated for wavefront reconstruction. We report here on the first (to our knowledge) end-to-end simulations of closed-loop ground-layer AO with laser guide stars with such an improved noise model. The results are compared with the level of performance predicted by a classical noise model for the reconstruction. The performance is studied in terms of ensquared energy and confirms that, thanks to the improved noise model, central or side launching of the lasers does not affect the performance with respect to the laser guide stars' flux. These two launching schemes also perform similarly whatever the atmospheric turbulence strength.

The Massive Star-forming Regions Omnibus X-ray Catalog, Second Installment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Townsley, Leisa K.; Broos, Patrick S.; Garmire, Gordon P.; Anderson, Gemma E.; Feigelson, Eric D.; Naylor, Tim; Povich, Matthew S.

2018-04-01

We present the second installment of the Massive Star-forming Regions (MSFRs) Omnibus X-ray Catalog (MOXC2), a compilation of X-ray point sources detected in Chandra/ACIS observations of 16 Galactic MSFRs and surrounding fields. MOXC2 includes 13 ACIS mosaics, three containing a pair of unrelated MSFRs at different distances, with a total catalog of 18,396 point sources. The MSFRs sampled range over distances of 1.3 kpc to 6 kpc and populations varying from single massive protostars to the most massive Young Massive Cluster known in the Galaxy. By carefully detecting and removing X-ray point sources down to the faintest statistically significant limit, we facilitate the study of the remaining unresolved X-ray emission. Through comparison with mid-infrared images that trace photon-dominated regions and ionization fronts, we see that the unresolved X-ray emission is due primarily to hot plasmas threading these MSFRs, the result of feedback from the winds and supernovae of massive stars. The 16 MSFRs studied in MOXC2 more than double the MOXC1 sample, broadening the parameter space of ACIS MSFR explorations and expanding Chandra's substantial contribution to contemporary star formation science.

National Military Family Association

MedlinePlus

... Action Volunteer Mark Your Calendar Donate Twitter Facebook Instagram Donate Appreciating Military Families: Meet the Wilsons This ... 2017 - National Military Family Association Twitter Facebook Pinterest Instagram Charity Navigator Four Star Charity GuideStar Exchange Better ...

A search for stellar occultations by Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and their satellites: 1990-1999

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mink, Douglas J.

1991-01-01

A search for occultations of stars by Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto between 1990 and 1999 was carried out by combining ephemeris information and star positions using very accurate occultation modeling software. Stars from both the Space Telescope Guide Catalog and photographic plates taken by Arnold Klemola at Lick Observatory were compared with planet positions from the JPL DE-130 ephemeris, with local modifications for Pluto and Charon. Some 666 possible occultations by the Uranian ring, 143 possible occultations by Neptune, and 40 possible occultations by Pluto and/or Charon were found among stars with visual magnitudes as faint as 16. Before the star positions could be obtained, the occultation prediction software was used to aid many observers in observing the occultation of 28 Sagitarii by Saturn in July 1989. As a test on other outer solar system objects, 17 possible occultations were found in a search of the Guide Star Catalog for occultations by 2060 Chiron, and interesting object between Saturn and Uranus which shows both cometary and asteroidal properties.

A search for stellar occultations by Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and their satellites: 1990-1999

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mink, Douglas J.

1991-03-01

A search for occultations of stars by Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto between 1990 and 1999 was carried out by combining ephemeris information and star positions using very accurate occultation modeling software. Stars from both the Space Telescope Guide Catalog and photographic plates taken by Arnold Klemola at Lick Observatory were compared with planet positions from the JPL DE-130 ephemeris, with local modifications for Pluto and Charon. Some 666 possible occultations by the Uranian ring, 143 possible occultations by Neptune, and 40 possible occultations by Pluto and/or Charon were found among stars with visual magnitudes as faint as 16. Before the star positions could be obtained, the occultation prediction software was used to aid many observers in observing the occultation of 28 Sagitarii by Saturn in July 1989. As a test on other outer solar system objects, 17 possible occultations were found in a search of the Guide Star Catalog for occultations by 2060 Chiron, and interesting object between Saturn and Uranus which shows both cometary and asteroidal properties.

XpressWare Installation User guide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duffey, K. P.

XpressWare is a set of X terminal software, released by Tektronix Inc, that accommodates the X Window system on a range of host computers. The software comprises boot files (the X server image), configuration files, fonts, and font tools to support the X terminal. The files can be installed on one host or distributed across multiple hosts The purpose of this guide is to present the system or network administrator with a step-by-step account of how to install XpressWare, and how subsequently to configure the X terminals appropriately for the environment in which they operate.

Detecting non-uniform period spacings in the Kepler photometry of γ Doradus stars: methodology and case studies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Reeth, T.; Tkachenko, A.; Aerts, C.; Pápics, P. I.; Degroote, P.; Debosscher, J.; Zwintz, K.; Bloemen, S.; De Smedt, K.; Hrudkova, M.; Raskin, G.; Van Winckel, H.

2015-02-01

Context. The analysis of stellar oscillations is one of the most reliable ways to probe stellar interiors. Recent space missions such as Kepler have provided us with an opportunity to study these oscillations with unprecedented detail. For many multi-periodic pulsators such as γ Doradus stars, this led to the detection of dozens to hundreds of oscillation frequencies that could not be found from ground-based observations. Aims: We aim to detect non-uniform period spacings in the Fourier spectra of a sample of γ Doradus stars observed by Kepler. Such detection is complicated by both the large number of significant frequencies in the space photometry and by overlapping non-equidistant rotationally split multiplets. Methods: Guided by theoretical properties of gravity-mode oscillation of γ Doradus stars, we developed a period-spacing detection method and applied it to Kepler observations of a few stars, after having tested the performance from simulations. Results: The application of the technique resulted in the clear detection of non-uniform period spacing series for three out of the five treated Kepler targets. Disadvantages of the technique are also discussed, and include the disability to distinguish between different values of the spherical degree and azimuthal order of the oscillation modes without additional theoretical modelling. Conclusions: Despite the shortcomings, the method is shown to allow solid detections of period spacings for γ Doradus stars, which will allow future asteroseismic analyses of these stars. Based on data gathered with the NASA Discovery mission Kepler and the HERMES spectrograph, which is installed at the Mercator Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma by the Flemish Community at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, and supported by the Fund for Scientific Research of Flanders (FWO), Belgium, the Research Council of KU Leuven, Belgium, the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS), Belgium, the Royal Observatory of Belgium, the Observatoire de Genève, Switzerland, and the Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Germany.Table A.1 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/574/A17

STAR (Simple Tool for Automated Reasoning): Tutorial guide and reference manual

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Borchardt, G. C.

1985-01-01

STAR is an interactive, interpreted programming language for the development and operation of Artificial Intelligence application systems. The language is intended for use primarily in the development of software application systems which rely on a combination of symbolic processing, central to the vast majority of AI algorithms, with routines and data structures defined in compiled languages such as C, FORTRAN and PASCAL. References to routines and data structures defined in compiled languages are intermixed with symbolic structures in STAR, resulting in a hybrid operating environment in which symbolic and non-symbolic processing and organization of data may interact to a high degree within the execution of particular application systems. The STAR language was developed in the course of a project involving AI techniques in the interpretation of imaging spectrometer data and is derived in part from a previous language called CLIP. The interpreter for STAR is implemented as a program defined in the language C and has been made available for distribution in source code form through NASA's Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC). Contained within this report are the STAR Tutorial Guide, which introduces the language in a step-by-step manner, and the STAR Reference Manual, which provides a detailed summary of the features of STAR.

An earth anchor system: installation and design guide.

Treesearch

R.L. Copstead; D.D. Studier

1990-01-01

A system for anchoring the guylines and skylines of cable yarding equipment is presented. A description of three types of tipping plate anchors is given. Descriptions of the installation equipment and methods specific to each type are given. Procedures for determining the correct number of anchors to install are included, as are guidelines for installing the anchors so...

Laser-sodium interaction for the polychromatic laser guide star project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellanger, Veronique; Petit, Alain D.

2002-02-01

We developed a code aimed at determining the laser parameters leading to the maximum return flux of photons at 0.33 micrometers for a polychromatic sodium Laser Guide Star. This software relies upon a full 48-level collisionless and magnetic-field-free density-matrix description of the hyperfine structure of Na and includes Doppler broadening and Zeeman degeneracy. Experimental validation of BEACON was conducted on the SILVA facilities and will also be discussed in this paper.

Freedom Star tows a barge with an SLWT into Port Canaveral for the first time

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1998-01-01

Freedom Star, one of NASA's two solid rocket booster recovery ships, tows a barge containing the third Space Shuttle super lightweight external tank (SLWT) into Port Canaveral. This SLWT will be used to launch the orbiter Discovery on mission STS-95 in October. This first-time towing arrangement, part of a cost savings plan by NASA to prudently manage existing resources, began June 12 from the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the Shuttle's external tanks are manufactured. The barge will now be transported up the Banana River to the LC-39 turn basin using a conventional tugboat. Previously, NASA relied on an outside contractor to provide external tank towing services at a cost of about $120,000 per trip. The new plan allows NASA's Space Flight Operations contractor, United Space Alliance (USA), to provide the same service directly to NASA using the recovery ships during their downtime between Shuttle launches. Studies show a potential savings of about $50,000 per trip. The cost of the necessary ship modifications should be paid back by the fourteenth tank delivery. The other recovery ship, Liberty Star, has also undergone deck strengthening enhancements and will soon have the necessary towing winch installed. The other recovery vessel, Liberty Star, has undergone deck strengthening enhancements along with Freedom Star and will soon have the necessary towing winch installed.

Temporary large guide signs.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-05-01

A common issue during phased highway construction projects is the need to temporarily relocate : large guide signs on the roadside or install new guide signs for temporary use. The conventional concrete : foundations used for these signs are costly a...

Searching for the signatures of terrestrial planets in F-, G-type main-sequence stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

González Hernández, J. I.; Delgado-Mena, E.; Sousa, S. G.; Israelian, G.; Santos, N. C.; Adibekyan, V. Zh.; Udry, S.

2013-04-01

Context. Detailed chemical abundances of volatile and refractory elements have been discussed in the context of terrestrial-planet formation during in past years. Aims: The HARPS-GTO high-precision planet-search program has provided an extensive database of stellar spectra, which we have inspected in order to select the best-quality spectra available for late type stars. We study the volatile-to-refractory abundance ratios to investigate their possible relation with the low-mass planetary formation. Methods: We present a fully differential chemical abundance analysis using high-quality HARPS and UVES spectra of 61 late F- and early G-type main-sequence stars, where 29 are planet hosts and 32 are stars without detected planets. Results: As for the previous sample of solar analogs, these stars slightly hotter than the Sun also provide very accurate Galactic chemical abundance trends in the metallicity range -0.3 < [Fe/H] < 0.4. Stars with and without planets show similar mean abundance ratios. Moreover, when removing the Galactic chemical evolution effects, these mean abundance ratios, Δ [X/Fe] SUN - STARS, against condensation temperature, tend to exhibit less steep trends with nearly zero or slightly negative slopes. We have also analyzed a subsample of 26 metal-rich stars, 13 with and 13 without known planets, with spectra at S/N ~ 850, on average, in the narrow metallicity range 0.04 < [Fe/H] < 0.19. We find the similar, although not equal, abundance pattern with negative slopes for both samples of stars with and without planets. Using stars at S/N ≥ 550 provides equally steep abundance trends with negative slopes for stars both with and without planets. We revisit the sample of solar analogs to study the abundance patterns of these stars, in particular, 8 stars hosting super-Earth-like planets. Among these stars having very low-mass planets, only four of them reveal clear increasing abundance trends versus condensation temperature. Conclusions: Finally, we compared these observed slopes with those predicted using a simple model that enables us to compute the mass of rocks that have formed terrestrial planets in each planetary system. We do not find any evidence supporting the conclusion that the volatile-to-refractory abundance ratio is related to the presence of rocky planets. Based on observations collected with the HARPS spectrograph at the 3.6-m telescope (072.C-0488(E)), installed at the La Silla Observatory, ESO (Chile), with the UVES spectrograph at the 8-m Very Large Telescope (VLT) - program IDs: 67.C-0206(A), 074.C-0134(A), 075.D-0453(A) -, installed at the Cerro Paranal Observatory, ESO (Chile), and with the UES spectrograph at the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT), installed at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, on the island of La Palma.Tables A.1-A.8 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/552/A6

Performance of the Keck Observatory adaptive-optics system.

PubMed

van Dam, Marcos A; Le Mignant, David; Macintosh, Bruce A

2004-10-10

The adaptive-optics (AO) system at the W. M. Keck Observatory is characterized. We calculate the error budget of the Keck AO system operating in natural guide star mode with a near-infrared imaging camera. The measurement noise and bandwidth errors are obtained by modeling the control loops and recording residual centroids. Results of sky performance tests are presented: The AO system is shown to deliver images with average Strehl ratios of as much as 0.37 at 1.58 microm when a bright guide star is used and of 0.19 for a magnitude 12 star. The images are consistent with the predicted wave-front error based on our error budget estimates.

Adaptive Optics Makes A Research Instrument Out Of A Commercial 30 cm Aperture Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Durig, D. T.

1999-12-01

I recently upgraded my SBIG ST-8 CCD camera with the AO-7 Adaptive Optics unit. This has solved many of the problems with tracking errors and the stability of my telescope mount and allowed me to obtain useful astrometric information on asteroids, comets and supernovae. It is no longer easy to take automated remote images but as long as I am at the observatory, good quality data can be obtained. The AO-7 unit allows me to pick a guide star for the guiding CCD just slightly out of the field of view of the imaging CCD. I am able to guide at the rate of 5 corrections per second with a 13th magnitude guide star. The fastest I have been able to guide is 30 times per second, but there are not usually bright enough stars near the image field to use this rate. When I have to use a dimmer star to guide on, and my rate is as slow as once per two seconds, good results are possible as long as the winds are not too strong. With a focal length of 1775 mm (f/5.75) and 2x2 binning on the CDD I am able to reach at least 18th magnitude objects in a 30 second exposure, but the guiding has to be very good to use these images for astrometry. For objects dimmer than 17th magnitude I normally go to a 2 minute exposure. With this equipment I was the first to observe that a recently discovered object (Comet LINEAR S4) was a comet and not an asteroid as originally reported (see IAUC 7267). I have performed additional astrometric observations on Comets LINEAR S3, S4, T2 and Ferris U1. I have also performed measurements on over a dozen asteroids from the MPC Critical List.

Hubble Camera Resumes Science Operation With Picture Of 'Butterfly' In Space.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

he Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) is back at work, capturing this black-and-white image of the 'butterfly wing'-shaped nebula, NGC 2346. The nebula is about 2,000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation Monoceros. It represents the spectacular 'last gasp' of a binary star system at the nebula's center. The image was taken on March 6, as part of the recommissioning of the Hubble Space Telescope's previously installed scientific instruments following the successful servicing of the HST by NASA astronauts in February. WFPC2 was installed in HST during the servicing mission in 1993. At the center of the nebula lies a pair of stars that are so close together that they orbit around each other every 16 days. This is so close that, even with Hubble, the pair of stars cannot be resolved into its two components. One component of this binary is the hot core of a star that has ejected most of its outer layers, producing the surrounding nebula. Astronomers believe that this star, when it evolved and expanded to become a red giant, actually swallowed its companion star in an act of stellar cannibalism. The resulting interaction led to a spiraling together of the two stars, culminating in ejection of the outer layers of the red giant. Most of the outer layers were ejected into a dense disk, which can still be seen in the Hubble image, surrounding the central star. Later the hot star developed a fast stellar wind. This wind, blowing out into the surrounding disk, has inflated the large, wispy hourglass-shaped wings perpendicular to the disk. These wings produce the butterfly appearance when seen in projection. The total diameter of the nebula is about one-third of a light-year, or 2 trillion miles. Our own Sun will eject a nebula about 5 billion years from now. However, the Sun is not a double star, so its nebula may well be more spherical in shape. The image was taken through a filter that shows the light of glowing nitrogen atoms. Scientists are still testing and calibrating the newly installed instruments on Hubble , the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). These instruments will be ready to make observations in a few weeks. Credit: Massimo Stiavelli (STScI), and NASA other team member: Inge Heyer (STScI) Image files in GIF and JPEG format and captions may be accessed on the Internet via anonymous ftp from oposite.stsci.edu in /pubinfo.

An Administrator's Guide to Installing a Telephone System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forbes, Phyllis Rossiter

1986-01-01

Guidelines for administrators concerning installation of a new campus telephone system address these issues: where to start; location and emergency power; the project team; paperwork; communication among those involved in installation; working with the local operating company; existing wiring; the external cable plant; special needs; and training…

Federal Emergency Management Information System (FEMIS) system administration guide. Version 1.2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burford, M.J.; Burnett, R.A.; Curtis, L.M.

The Federal Emergency Management Information System (FEMIS) is an emergency management planning and analysis tool that is being developed under the direction of the US Army Chemical biological Defense Command. The FEMIS System Administration Guide defines FEMIS hardware and software requirements and gives instructions for installing the FEMIS system package. System administrators, database administrators, and general users can use this guide to install, configure, and maintain the FEMIS client software package. This document provides a description of the FEMIS environment; distribution media; data, communications, and electronic mail servers; user workstations; and system management.

Direct wavefront sensing for high-resolution in vivo imaging in scattering tissue

PubMed Central

Wang, Kai; Sun, Wenzhi; Richie, Christopher T.; Harvey, Brandon K.; Betzig, Eric; Ji, Na

2015-01-01

Adaptive optics by direct imaging of the wavefront distortions of a laser-induced guide star has long been used in astronomy, and more recently in microscopy to compensate for aberrations in transparent specimens. Here we extend this approach to tissues that strongly scatter visible light by exploiting the reduced scattering of near-infrared guide stars. The method enables in vivo two-photon morphological and functional imaging down to 700 μm inside the mouse brain. PMID:26073070

Installation package for the Solaron solar subsystem

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1979-01-01

Information that is intended to be a guide for installation, operation, and maintenance of the various solar subsystems is presented. The subsystems consist of the following: collectors, storage, transport (air handler) and controller for heat pump and peak storage. Two prototype residential systems were installed at Akron, Ohio, and Duffield, Virginia.

A MAPS Based Micro-Vertex Detector for the STAR Experiment

DOE PAGES

Schambach, Joachim; Anderssen, Eric; Contin, Giacomo; ...

2015-06-18

For the 2014 heavy ion run of RHIC a new micro-vertex detector called the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) was installed in the STAR experiment. The HFT consists of three detector subsystems with various silicon technologies arranged in 4 approximately concentric cylinders close to the STAR interaction point designed to improve the STAR detector’s vertex resolution and extend its measurement capabilities in the heavy flavor domain. The two innermost HFT layers are placed at radii of 2.8 cm and 8 cm from the beam line. These layers are constructed with 400 high resolution sensors based on CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensormore » (MAPS) technology arranged in 10-sensor ladders mounted on 10 thin carbon fiber sectors to cover a total silicon area of 0.16 m 2. Each sensor of this PiXeL (“PXL”) sub-detector combines a pixel array of 928 rows and 960 columns with a 20.7 μm pixel pitch together with front-end electronics and zero-suppression circuitry in one silicon die providing a sensitive area of ~3.8 cm 2. This sensor architecture features 185.6 μs readout time and 170 mW/cm 2 power dissipation. This low power dissipation allows the PXL detector to be air-cooled, and with the sensors thinned down to 50 μm results in a global material budget of only 0.4% radiation length per layer. A novel mechanical approach to detector insertion allows us to effectively install and integrate the PXL sub-detector within a 12 hour period during an on-going multi-month data taking period. The detector requirements, architecture and design, as well as the performance after installation, are presented in this paper.« less

Skid-mounted support system for temporary guide signs.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-11-01

A common issue during phased highway construction projects is the need to temporarily relocate : large guide signs on the roadside or install new guide signs for temporary use. The conventional concrete : foundations used for these signs are costly a...

Vanguard Preparatory School Observations of the Double Star STF 1692

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, Serenity; Buccola, Breck; Garcia, Karen; Gosney, Matthew; Housatchenko, Jonathan; Martinez, Lilian; Myskow, Wyatt; Renteria, Noah; Schlosser, Ruth; Thompson, Leone; Estrada, Reed; Estrada, Chris

2016-01-01

Using a 22-inch Newtonian Alt/Az telescope and a Celestron Micro Guide eyepiece, students from Vanguard Preparatory observed the binary star Cor Caroli (STF 1692) and found a position angle of 228 degrees as well as an average separation of 21.10". This project was a part of the Vanguard Preparatory Double Star Workshop 2015 in Apple Valley, California.

Star Watch: The Amateur Astronomer's Guide to Finding, Observing, and Learning about Over 125 Celestial Objects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harrington, Philip S.

2003-07-01

Your Passport to the Universe The night sky is alive with many wonders--distant planets, vast star clusters, glowing nebulae, and expansive galaxies, all waiting to be explored. Let respected astronomy writer Philip Harrington introduce you to the universe in Star Watch, a complete beginner's guide to locating, observing, and understanding these celestial objects. You'll start by identifying the surface features of the Moon, the banded cloud tops of Jupiter, the stunning rings of Saturn, and other members of our solar system. Then you'll venture out beyond our solar system, where you'll learn tips and tricks for finding outstanding deep-sky objects from stars to galaxies, including the entire Messier catalog--a primary goal of every serious beginner. Star Watch features a detailed physical description of each target, including size, distance, and structure, as well as concise directions for locating the objects, handy finder charts, hints on the best times to view each object, and descriptions of what you'll really see through a small telescope or binoculars and with the naked eye. Star Watch will transport you to the farthest depths of space--and return you as a well-traveled, experienced stargazer.

Design constraints of the LST fine guidance sensor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wissinger, A. B.

1975-01-01

The LST Fine Guidance Sensor design is shaped by the rate of occurrence of suitable guide stars, the competition for telescope focal plane space with the Science Instruments, and the sensitivity of candidate image motion sensors. The relationship between these parameters is presented, and sensitivity to faint stars is shown to be of prime importance. An interferometric technique of image motion sensing is shown to have improved sensitivity and, therefore, a reduced focal plane area requirement in comparison with other candidate techniques (image-splitting prism and image dissector tube techniques). Another design requirement is speed in acquiring the guide star in order to maximize the time available for science observations. The design constraints are shown parametrically, and modelling results are presented.

[Hydrodynamic effects of the oxidation ditch on the removal efficiency and energy consumption].

PubMed

Liu, Guang-Li; Chong, Yun-Xiao; Fan, Qing-Juan; Jia, Xiao-Shan; Li, Shou-Hui

2006-11-01

The hydrodynamic characteristics in the oxidation ditch have great effects on the distributions of the dissolved oxygen and the velocity gradient, and then make important effects on the removal efficiency and energy consumption. The single-ditch Passver oxidation ditch with the capacity of 500 m3/d was investigated. The measurement and computer simulation were carried out on the velocity gradient and degrees, 180 degrees, respectively, which lied on the corner of the downriver of the aerator. The local energy consumption could be decreased by 10% after the guided wall with 180 degrees opening angle was installed. Under the condition that the velocity of the aerator was 72 r/min, the installation of the 180 degrees guided wall could not effect the distribution of DO concentration. According to the operation results of treating the municipal wastewater with low concentration, the IAWPRC model was used to simulate the water qualities in the oxidation ditch with the 180 degrees guided wall or not, respectively. The simulation results showed that the water qualities in the effluent didn't change a lot after the 180 degrees guided wall installed.

LGS adaptive optics system with long-pulsed sodium laser on Lijiang 1.8 meter telescope 2014-2016 observation campaign

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Kai; Li, Min; Jiang, Changchun; Wei, Ling; Zheng, Wenjia; Li, Wenru; Ma, Xiaoyu; Zhou, Luchun; Jin, Kai; Bo, Yong; Zuo, Junwei; Wang, Pengyuan; Cheng, Feng; Zhang, Xiaojun; Chen, Donghong; Deng, Jijiang; Gao, Yang; Shen, Yu; Bian, Qi; Yao, Ji; Huang, Jiang; Dong, Ruoxi; Deng, Keran; Peng, Qinjun; Rao, Changhui; Xu, Zuyan; Zhang, Yudong

2016-07-01

During 2014-2016, the Laser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics (AO) system observation campaign has been carried out on Lijiang 1.8 meter telescope. During the campaign, two generation LGS AO systems have been developed and installed. In 2014, a long-pulsed solid Sodium prototype laser with 20W@400Hz, a beam transfer optical (BTO) system, and a laser launch telescope (LLT) with 300mm diameter were mounted onto the telescope and moved with telescope azimuth journal. At the same time, a 37-elements compact LGS AO system had been mounted on the Bent-Cassegrain focus and got its first light on observing HIP43963 (mV= 8.18mv) and reached Sr=0.27 in J Band after LGS AO compensation. In 2016, the solid Sodium laser has been upgrade to stable 32W@800Hz while D2a plus D2b repumping is used to increase the photon return, and a totally new LGS AO system with 164-elements Deformable Mirror, Linux Real Time Controller, inner closed loop Tip/tilt mirror, Multiple-PMT tracking detector is established and installed on the telescope. And the throughput for the BTO/LLT is improved nearly 20%. The campaign process, the performance of the two LGS AO systems especially the latter one, the characteristics of the BTO/LLT system and the result are present in this paper.

KSC-2012-3146

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-05-31

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Technicians install the spacecraft airborne support equipment to the Orbital Sciences' L-1011 carrier aircraft. This equipment will maintain the in-flight monitoring and control of the NuSTAR spacecraft before the release of the Pegasus XL rocket. The Pegasus will launch NuSTAR into space where the high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

KSC-2012-1601

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-02-29

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array NuSTAR spacecraft is wrapped in its protective cover and half of its payload fairing is behind it in processing facility 1555 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Technicians are performing fairing closeout work in preparation for fairing installation around the spacecraft, which is scheduled to begin March 2. The cover protecting NuSTAR's delicate instruments will be removed prior to the fairing installation. The fairing will protect the spacecraft from the heat and aerodynamic pressure generated during ascent to orbit aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket. After processing of the rocket and spacecraft are complete, they will be flown on Orbital's L-1011 carrier aircraft from Vandenberg to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy X-ray telescope will conduct a census of black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

Installation of Ceramic Tile: Residential Thin-Set Methods.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Short, Sam

This curriculum guide contains materials for use in teaching a course on residential thin-set methods of tile installation. Covered in the individual units are the following topics: the tile industry; basic math; tools; measurement; safety in tile setting; installation materials and guidelines for their use; floors; counter tops and backsplashes;…

Man-made Star Shines in the Southern Sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2006-02-01

Scientists celebrate another major milestone at Cerro Paranal in Chile, home of ESO's Very Large Telescope array. Thanks to their dedicated efforts, they were able to create the first artificial star in the Southern Hemisphere, allowing astronomers to study the Universe in the finest detail. This artificial laser guide star makes it possible to apply adaptive optics systems, that counteract the blurring effect of the atmosphere, almost anywhere in the sky. ESO PR Photo 07a/06 ESO PR Photo 07a/06 First Light of the VLT Laser Guide Star On 28 January 2006, at 23:07 local time, a laser beam of several watts was launched from Yepun, the fourth 8.2m Unit Telescope of the Very Large Telescope, producing an artificial star, 90 km up in the atmosphere. Despite this star being about 20 times fainter than the faintest star that can be seen with the unaided eye, it is bright enough for the adaptive optics to measure and correct the atmosphere's blurring effect. The event was greeted with much enthusiasm and happiness by the people in the control room of one of the most advanced astronomical facilities in the world. It was the culmination of five years of collaborative work by a team of scientists and engineers from ESO and the Max Planck Institutes for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching and for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. After more than one month of integration on site with the invaluable support of the Paranal Observatory staff, the VLT Laser Guide Star Facility saw First Light and propagated into the sky a 50cm wide, vivid, beautifully yellow beam. ESO PR Photo 07b/06 ESO PR Photo 07b/06 An Artificial Star Above Paranal "This event tonight marks the beginning of the Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics era for ESO's present and future telescopes", said Domenico Bonaccini Calia, Head of the Laser Guide Star group at ESO and LGSF Project Manager. Normally, the achievable image sharpness of a ground-based telescope is limited by the effect of atmospheric turbulence. This drawback can be surmounted with adaptive optics, allowing the telescope to produce images that are as sharp as if taken from space. This means that finer details in astronomical objects can be studied, and also that fainter objects can be observed. In order to work, adaptive optics needs a nearby reference star that has to be relatively bright, thereby limiting the area of the sky that can be surveyed. To overcome this limitation, astronomers use a powerful laser that creates an artificial star, where and when they need it. ESO PR Photo 07c/06 ESO PR Photo 07c/06 The Laser Guide Star Laboratory The laser beam, shining at a well-defined wavelength, makes the layer of sodium atoms that is present in Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 90 kilometres glow. The laser is hosted in a dedicated laboratory under the platform of Yepun. A custom-made fibre carries the high power laser to the launch telescope situated on top of the large Unit Telescope. An intense and exhilarating twelve days of tests followed the First Light of the Laser Guide Star (LGS), during which the LGS was used to improve the resolution of astronomical images obtained with the two adaptive optics instruments in use on Yepun: the NAOS-CONICA imager and the SINFONI spectrograph. In the early hours of 9 February, the LGS could be used together with the SINFONI instrument, while in the early morning of 10 February, it was with the NAOS-CONICA system. ESO PR Video 07/06 ESO PR Video 07/06 Learn more with the video! "To have succeeded in such a short time is an outstanding feat and is a tribute to all those who have together worked so hard over the last few years," said Richard Davies, project manager for the laser source development at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. A second phase of commissioning will take place in the spring with the aim of optimizing the operations and refining the performances before the instrument is made available to the astronomers, later this year. The experience gained with this Laser Guide Star is also a key milestone in the design of the next generation of Extremely Large Telescope in the 30 to 60 metre range that is now being studied by ESO together with the European astronomical community. High resolution images and their captions are available on this page. This press release is also accompanied by Broadcast quality material. Notes The Laser Guide Star Facility is a collaborative project between ESO, the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany (MPE) and the Max Planck Institut for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany (MPIA). The team members are D. Bonaccini Calia, W. Hackenberg, M. Cullum, M. Dimmler, I. Guidolin, C. Araujo, E. Allaert, D. Popovic, M. Comin, M. Quattri, E. Brunetto, F. Koch, A. Silber, J-L. Alvarez, M. Tapia, E. Bendek, J. Quentin, G. Fischer, M. Tarenghi, G.Monnet, and R.Gilmozzi (ESO), R. Davies, S. Rabien, T. Ott, R. Genzel, S.Kellner, S. Huber, W. Zaglauer, A. Goldbrunner, and J. Li (MPE), and S. Hippler, U. Neumann, D. Butler, R.-R. Rohloff, and B.Grimm (MPIA). Members of ESO's Adaptive Optics team also participated to First Light: M. Kasper, S. Stroebele, E. Fedrigo, R. Donaldson, S. Oberti, and C. Soenke. This press release is issued in coordination between ESO and the Max Planck Society. A German version is available at http://www.mpg.de/bilderBerichteDokumente/dokumentation/pressemitteilungen/2006/

Study Guide for Floorcovering [and Instructor's Key]. V&TECC Curriculum Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duenk, Lester G.; And Others

Designed for use with industrial cooperative training programs, this study guide on floor covering installation presents the basic foundation knowledge which must be put to practice on the job. The guide begins with a floor covering occupational brief. Specific topics in this section include status of the occupation, working conditions, salary,…

Observations of the star Cor Caroli at the Apple Valley Workshop 2016

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Estrada, Reed; Boyd, Sidney; Estrada, Chris; Evans, Cody; Rhoades, Hannah; Rhoades, Mark; Rhoades, Trevor

2017-06-01

Using a 22-inch Newtonian Alt/Az telescope and Celestron Micro Guide eyepiece, students participating in a workshop observed the binary star Cor Caroli (STF 1692) and found a position angle of 231.0 degrees as well as an average separation of 18.7" This observation compared favorably with the 2015 Washington Double Star published position. This project was part of Mark Brewer's Apple Valley Double Star Workshop. The results were analyzed using bias and circle error probability calculations.

Observing variable stars at the University of Athens Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gazeas, K.; Manimanis, V. N.; Niarchos, P. G.

In 1999 the University of Athens installed a 0.4-m Cassegrain telescope (CCT-16, by DFM Engineering) on the roof of the Department of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, equipped with a ST-8 CCD camera and Bessel UBVRI filters. Although the telescope was built for educational purposes, we found it can be a perfect research instrument, as we can obtain fine quality light curves of bright variable stars, even from a place close to the city center. Light curves of the δ Scuti star V1162 Ori and of the sdB star PG 1336-018 are presented, showing the ability of a 40-cm telescope to detect negligible luminosity fluctuations of relatively bright variable stars. To date, we succeed in making photometry of stars down to 15th magnitude with satisfactory results. We expect to achieve even better results in the future, as our methods still improve, and as the large number of relatively bright stars gives us the chance to study various fields of CCD photometry of variables.

Optomechanical design of TMT NFIRAOS Subsystems at INO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lamontagne, Frédéric; Desnoyers, Nichola; Grenier, Martin; Cottin, Pierre; Leclerc, Mélanie; Martin, Olivier; Buteau-Vaillancourt, Louis; Boucher, Marc-André; Nash, Reston; Lardière, Olivier; Andersen, David; Atwood, Jenny; Hill, Alexis; Byrnes, Peter W. G.; Herriot, Glen; Fitzsimmons, Joeleff; Véran, Jean-Pierre

2017-08-01

The adaptive optics system for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is the Narrow-Field InfraRed Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS). Recently, INO has been involved in the optomechanical design of several subsystems of NFIRAOS, including the Instrument Selection Mirror (ISM), the NFIRAOS Beamsplitters (NBS), and the NFIRAOS Source Simulator system (NSS) comprising the Focal Plane Mask (FPM), the Laser Guide Star (LGS) sources, and the Natural Guide Star (NGS) sources. This paper presents an overview of these subsystems and the optomechanical design approaches used to meet the optical performance requirements under environmental constraints.

Ada Implementation Guide. Software Engineering With Ada. Volume 1

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-04-01

Staff, Department ofDefense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, Washington, D.C., 1989. STARS McDonal , C., and S . Redwine, *STARS Glossary: A...ADýA28 357> offj I Volume I I SI I t Ada Implementation II Guide 5 Software Engineering With AdaI I S DTIC QUALITY INSPECTED S 5 April 1994 g " 94...and Abbreviations ...................... I I N p a S I I I i I Libt of F4g u OW Tahl Figures 2-1 DON Directives and Instructions for Implementing Public

A near-infrared tip-tilt sensor for the Keck I laser guide star adaptive optics system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wizinowich, Peter; Smith, Roger; Biasi, Roberto; Cetre, Sylvain; Dekany, Richard; Femenia-Castella, Bruno; Fucik, Jason; Hale, David; Neyman, Chris; Pescoller, Dietrich; Ragland, Sam; Stomski, Paul; Andrighettoni, Mario; Bartos, Randy; Bui, Khanh; Cooper, Andrew; Cromer, John; van Dam, Marcos; Hess, Michael; James, Ean; Lyke, Jim; Rodriguez, Hector; Stalcup, Thomas

2014-07-01

The sky coverage and performance of laser guide star (LGS) adaptive optics (AO) systems is limited by the natural guide star (NGS) used for low order correction. This limitation can be dramatically reduced by measuring the tip and tilt of the NGS in the near-infrared where the NGS is partially corrected by the LGS AO system and where stars are generally several magnitudes brighter than at visible wavelengths. We present the design of a near-infrared tip-tilt sensor that has recently been integrated with the Keck I telescope's LGS AO system along with some initial on-sky results. The implementation involved modifications to the AO bench, real-time control system, and higher level controls and operations software that will also be discussed. The tip-tilt sensor is a H2RG-based near-infrared camera with 0.05 arc second pixels. Low noise at high sample rates is achieved by only reading a small region of interest, from 2×2 to 16×16 pixels, centered on an NGS anywhere in the 100 arc second diameter field. The sensor operates at either Ks or H-band using light reflected by a choice of dichroic beamsplitters located in front of the OSIRIS integral field spectrograph.

75 FR 55342 - Buy American Exceptions Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-10

... Jacksonville Housing Authority for the purchase and installation of programmable thermostats, compact... manufactured goods (programmable thermostats, CFL bulbs, and ENERGY STAR-qualified ceiling fans) are not...

Compressed Natural Gas Installation. A Video-Based Training Program for Vehicle Conversion. Instructor's Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oklahoma State Dept. of Vocational and Technical Education, Stillwater. Curriculum and Instructional Materials Center.

This instructor's guide contains the materials required to teach four competency-based course units of instruction in installing compressed natural gas (CNG) systems in motor vehicles. It is designed to accompany an instructional videotape (not included) on CNG installation. The following competencies are covered in the four instructional units:…

DESI-Detection of early-season invasives (software-installation manual and user's guide version 1.0)

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kokaly, Raymond F.

2011-01-01

This report describes a software system for detecting early-season invasive plant species, such as cheatgrass. The report includes instructions for installing the software and serves as a user's guide in processing Landsat satellite remote sensing data to map the distributions of cheatgrass and other early-season invasive plants. The software was developed for application to the semi-arid regions of southern Utah; however, the detection parameters can be altered by the user for application to other areas.

Design of a CGH corrected calibration objective for the AO system at the Large Binocular Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schwab, Christian; Rakich, Andrew; Peter, Diethard; Aigner, Simon

2010-08-01

We describe the optical design of a calibration unit for the off-axis laser guide stars at the Large Binocular Telescope's ARGOS facility. Artificial stars with the desired wavefront are created using a computer generated hologram.

Federal Emergency Management Information System (FEMIS) system administration guide. Version 1.3

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burford, M.J.; Burnett, R.A.; Downing, T.R.

The Federal Emergency Management Information System (FEMIS) is an emergency management planning and analysis tool that was developed by the (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) (PNNL) under the direction of the U.S. Army Chemical Biological Defense Command. The FEMIS System Administration Guide defines FEMIS hardware and software requirements and gives instructions for installing the FEMIS software package. 91 This document also contains information on the following: software installation for the FEMIS data servers, communication server, mail server, and the emergency management workstations; distribution media loading and FEMIS installation validation and troubleshooting; and system management of FEMIS users, login, privileges, and usage.more » The system administration utilities (tools), available in the FEMIS client software, are described for user accounts and site profile. This document also describes the installation and use of system and database administration utilities that will assist in keeping the FEMIS system running in an operational environment.« less

0-6782 : development of design standards for mounting temporary large guide signs.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-08-01

A common issue during phased highway : construction projects is the need to temporarily : relocate large guide signs on the roadside or install : new guide signs for temporary use. Many of these : signs are larger than 100 ft2 in size and cannot be :...

Solar Energy Installers Curriculum Guides. Book I.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Gene C.

This first volume of a comprehensive curriculum guide for the heating-ventilation-air conditioning-refrigeration-solar student is designed to assist high school area vocational centers or community college instructors in the implementation and operation of comfort training programs. Following an introductory section, the guide provides job…

Characterizing the Hercules Thick Disk Cloud

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-01-01

merger. Key Words: Astronomy , Hercules Thick Disk Cloud, Galaxy, Star Count, Color, Photometric Parallax 2 Contents Chapter 1... Astronomy : Structure and Kinematics, 2nd ed., New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1981, pp 4. 5 Henbest, Guide, pp 10. 6 Mihalas, Galactic, pp 209...studies of astronomy later in his life, he focused on binary star systems and concluded that not all stars have the same absolute magnitude, thus

Low-metallicity (sub-SMC) massive stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia, Miriam; Herrero, Artemio; Najarro, Francisco; Camacho, Inés; Lennon, Daniel J.; Urbaneja, Miguel A.; Castro, Norberto

2017-11-01

The double distance and metallicity frontier marked by the SMC has been finally broken with the aid of powerful multi-object spectrographs installed at 8-10m class telescopes. VLT, GTC and Keck have enabled studies of massive stars in dwarf irregular galaxies of the Local Group with poorer metal-content than the SMC. The community is working to test the predictions of evolutionary models in the low-metallicity regime, set the new standard for the metal-poor high-redshift Universe, and test the extrapolation of the physics of massive stars to environments of decreasing metallicity. In this paper, we review current knowledge on this topic.

VLT/PIONIER Imaging of Red Supergiant Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Montargès, Miguel

2018-04-01

PIONIER (Precision Integrated-Optics Near-infrared Imaging ExpeRiment) was the first 4-telescope instrument installed at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in 2010. Benefiting from the multiple interferometric configurations available at the Cerro Paranal observatory, it can efficiently image stellar surfaces. With their large linear sizes, nearby red supergiant stars are among the most interesting targets for such instrument. Near infrared interferometry allows to study their surface in order to get a better understanding of their mass loss, mostly by constraining the characteristics of their photospheric features. I will review recent results obtain with VLTI/PIONIER on red supergiant stars, and emphasize the different techniques used to analyze these observations.

Astronomy: A Self-Teaching Guide, 6th Edition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moché, Dinah L.

2004-02-01

"A lively, up-to-date account of the basic principles of astronomy and exciting current field of research."-Science Digest For a quarter of a century, Astronomy: A Self-Teaching Guide has been making students and amateur stargazers alike feel at home among the stars. From stars, planets and galaxies, to black holes, the Big Bang and life in space, this title has been making it easy for beginners to quickly grasp the basic concepts of astronomy for over 25 years. Updated with the latest discoveries in astronomy and astrophysics, this newest edition of Dinah Moché's classic guide now includes many Web site addresses for spectacular images and news. And like all previous editions, it is packed with valuable tables, charts, star and moon maps and features simple activities that reinforce readers' grasp of basic concepts at their own pace, as well as objectives, reviews, and self-tests to monitor their progress. Dinah L. Moché, PhD (Rye, NY), is an award-winning author, educator, and lecturer. Her books have sold over nine million copies in seven languages.

ARGOS: the laser guide star system for the LBT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabien, S.; Ageorges, N.; Barl, L.; Beckmann, U.; Blümchen, T.; Bonaglia, M.; Borelli, J. L.; Brynnel, J.; Busoni, L.; Carbonaro, L.; Davies, R.; Deysenroth, M.; Durney, O.; Elberich, M.; Esposito, S.; Gasho, V.; Gässler, W.; Gemperlein, H.; Genzel, R.; Green, R.; Haug, M.; Hart, M. L.; Hubbard, P.; Kanneganti, S.; Masciadri, E.; Noenickx, J.; Orban de Xivry, G.; Peter, D.; Quirrenbach, A.; Rademacher, M.; Rix, H. W.; Salinari, P.; Schwab, C.; Storm, J.; Strüder, L.; Thiel, M.; Weigelt, G.; Ziegleder, J.

2010-07-01

ARGOS is the Laser Guide Star adaptive optics system for the Large Binocular Telescope. Aiming for a wide field adaptive optics correction, ARGOS will equip both sides of LBT with a multi laser beacon system and corresponding wavefront sensors, driving LBT's adaptive secondary mirrors. Utilizing high power pulsed green lasers the artificial beacons are generated via Rayleigh scattering in earth's atmosphere. ARGOS will project a set of three guide stars above each of LBT's mirrors in a wide constellation. The returning scattered light, sensitive particular to the turbulence close to ground, is detected in a gated wavefront sensor system. Measuring and correcting the ground layers of the optical distortions enables ARGOS to achieve a correction over a very wide field of view. Taking advantage of this wide field correction, the science that can be done with the multi object spectrographs LUCIFER will be boosted by higher spatial resolution and strongly enhanced flux for spectroscopy. Apart from the wide field correction ARGOS delivers in its ground layer mode, we foresee a diffraction limited operation with a hybrid Sodium laser Rayleigh beacon combination.

LASL benchmark performance 1978. [CDC STAR-100, 6600, 7600, Cyber 73, and CRAY-1

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McKnight, A.L.

1979-08-01

This report presents the results of running several benchmark programs on a CDC STAR-100, a Cray Research CRAY-1, a CDC 6600, a CDC 7600, and a CDC Cyber 73. The benchmark effort included CRAY-1's at several installations running different operating systems and compilers. This benchmark is part of an ongoing program at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory to collect performance data and monitor the development trend of supercomputers. 3 tables.

Observations of the Star Cor Caroli at the Apple Valley Workshop 2016 (Abstract)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Estrada, R.; Boyd, S.; Estrada, C.; Evans, C.; Rhoades, H.; Rhoades, M.; Rhoades, T.

2017-12-01

(Abstract only) Using a 22-inch Newtonian Alt/Az telescope and Celestron Micro Guide eyepiece, students participating in a workshop observed the binary star Cor Caroli (STF 1692; alpha CVn) and found a position angle of 231.0 degrees as well as an average separation of 18.7" This observation compared favorably with the 2015 Washington Double Star published position. This project was part of Mark Brewer's Apple Valley Double Star Workshop. The results were analyzed using bias and circle error probability calculations.

Irrigation Systems. Instructor's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amarillo Coll., TX.

This guide is intended for use by licensed irrigators who wish to teach others how to design and install residential and commercial irrigation systems. The materials included in the guide have been developed under the assumption that the instructors who use it have little or no formal training as teachers. The first section presents detailed…

Solar Energy Installers Curriculum Guides. Book II.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Gene C.

This second volume of a comprehensive curriculum guide for the heating-ventilation-air conditioning-refrigeration-solar student is designed to assist high school area vocational centers or community college instructors in the implementation and operation of comfort training programs. The guide is comprised of ten units of instruction within three…

CCD Photometry of bright stars using objective wire mesh

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kamiński, Krzysztof; Zgórz, Marika; Schwarzenberg-Czerny, Aleksander, E-mail: chrisk@amu.edu.pl

2014-06-01

Obtaining accurate photometry of bright stars from the ground remains problematic due to the danger of overexposing the target and/or the lack of suitable nearby comparison stars. The century-old method of using objective wire mesh to produce multiple stellar images seems promising for the precise CCD photometry of such stars. Furthermore, our tests on β Cep and its comparison star, differing by 5 mag, are very encouraging. Using a CCD camera and a 20 cm telescope with the objective covered by a plastic wire mesh, in poor weather conditions, we obtained differential photometry with a precision of 4.5 mmag permore » two minute exposure. Our technique is flexible and may be tuned to cover a range as big as 6-8 mag. We discuss the possibility of installing a wire mesh directly in the filter wheel.« less

Heating equipment installation system

DOEpatents

Meuschke, Robert E.; Pomaibo, Paul P.

1991-01-01

A method for installing a heater unit assembly (52, 54) in a reactor pressure vessel (2) for performance of an annealing treatment on the vessel (2), the vessel (2) having a vertical axis, being open at the top, being provided at the top with a flange (6) having a horizontal surface, and being provided internally, at a location below the flange (6), with orientation elements (8) which are asymmetrical with respect to the vertical axis, by the steps of: providing an orientation fixture (10) having an upwardly extending guide member (18) and orientation elements (14, 16) and installing the orientation fixture (10) in the vessel (2) so that the orientation elements (14,16) of the orientation fixture (10) mate with the orientation elements (8) of the pressure vessel (2) in order to establish a defined position of the orientation fixture (10) in the pressure vessel (2), and so that the guide member (18) projects above the pressure vessel (2) flange (6); placing a seal ring (30) in a defined position on the pressure vessel (2) flange (6) with the aid of the guide member (18); mounting at least one vertical, upwardly extending guide stud (40) upon the seal ring (30); withdrawing the orientation fixture (10) from the pressure vessel (2); and moving the heater unit assembly (52,54) vertically downwardly into the pressure vessel (2) while guiding the heater unit assembly (52,54) along a path with the aid of the guide stud (40).

Star Trek with Latin. Teacher's Guide. Tentative Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masciantonio, Rudolph; And Others

The purpose of this guide is to assist Latin and English teachers with some background in Latin to expand the English vocabulary and reading skills of students through the study of Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes. The introductory material in the guide provides general notes on the teaching of Latin in the Philadelphia School District,…

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Apellániz, J. Maíz; Sota, A.; Alfaro, E. J.

This is the third installment of the Galactic O-Star Spectroscopic Survey (GOSSS), a massive spectroscopic survey of Galactic O stars, based on new homogeneous, high signal-to-noise ratio, R  ∼ 2500 digital observations selected from the Galactic O-Star Catalog. In this paper, we present 142 additional stellar systems with O stars from both hemispheres, bringing the total of O-type systems published within the project to 590. Among the new objects, there are 20 new O stars. We also identify 11 new double-lined spectroscopic binaries, 6 of which are of O+O type and 5 of O+B type, and an additional new tripled-lined spectroscopic binary of O+O+Bmore » type. We also revise some of the previous GOSSS classifications, present some egregious examples of stars erroneously classified as O-type in the past, introduce the use of luminosity class IV at spectral types O4-O5.5, and adapt the classification scheme to the work of Arias et al.« less

Modeling update for the Thirty Meter Telescope laser guide star dual-conjugate adaptive optics system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilles, Luc; Wang, Lianqi; Ellerbroek, Brent

2010-07-01

This paper describes the modeling efforts undertaken in the past couple of years to derive wavefront error (WFE) performance estimates for the Narrow Field Infrared Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS), which is the facility laser guide star (LGS) dual-conjugate adaptive optics (AO) system for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The estimates describe the expected performance of NFIRAOS as a function of seeing on Mauna Kea, zenith angle, and galactic latitude (GL). They have been developed through a combination of integrated AO simulations, side analyses, allocations, lab and lidar experiments.

A walk through the heavens : a guide to stars and constellations and their legends

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heifetz, Milton D.; Tirion, Wil

What star is that? Where's the Great Bear? Who was Andromeda? A Walk through the Heavens is your guide to the pathways of the night sky, answering the commonest questions about what you can see up there. There are simplified maps of the constellations, together with instructions on how to gauge their sizes and the distances between them. With this information you can find the constellations easily, and make a journey by eye from one constellation to the next. Ancient myths surrounding the constellations are retold, enriching our understanding of how historical peoples saw the awe-inspiring spectacle of a sky sprinkled with stars. This book, magically illustrated by Wil Tirion, does not require any instrument or telescope. It is an ideal introduction to launch a young astronomer on a journey across starlit skies.

Reference Collections and Standards.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winkel, Lois

1999-01-01

Reviews six reference materials for young people: "The New York Public Library Kid's Guide to Research"; "National Audubon Society First Field Guide. Mammals"; "Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary"; "Encarta Africana"; "World Fact Book, 1998"; and "Factastic Book of 1001 Lists". Includes ordering information.(AEF)

Student Measurements of STFA 14 AC at Vanguard Preparatory School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillette, Sean; Archuleta, Alex; Diaz, Lizbeth; Gillespie, Kyle; Gosney, Timothy; Johnson, Stephen; Mohan, Nikita; Rajacich, Jacob; Roehl, Nathaniel; Sharpe, Scotty; Whitt, Kahaloha

2016-01-01

Eighth grade students at Vanguard Preparatory School measured the double star STFA 14 AC using a Bader Planetarium Micro Guide eyepiece. Navi (Gamma Cassiopeiae) was used as the ca libration star. The calculated means of multiple observations of STFA 14 AC resulted in a separation of 53.3" and a position angle of 2.0°. These measurements were compared to the most recent values in the Washington Double Star Catalog.

A Traveler's Guide to the Universe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darling, Gerald

2012-01-01

Elementary school students are intensely curious about astronomy: the Moon, planets, stars, and galaxies. Summer, with its warm evenings and star-filled skies, is the perfect time for students to explore the cosmos with a pair of binoculars. Because binoculars are used for many purposes (sporting events or birding, for example), many families…

Fairbanks North Star borough rural roads upgrade inventory and cost estimation software user guide : version I.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-04-01

The Rural Road Upgrade Inventory and Cost Estimation Software is designed by the AUTC : research team to help the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB) estimate the cost of upgrading : rural roads located in the Borough's Service Areas. The Software pe...

Biology Students Building Computer Simulations Using StarLogo TNG

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, V. Anne; Duncan, Ishbel

2011-01-01

Confidence is an important issue for biology students in handling computational concepts. This paper describes a practical in which honours-level bioscience students simulate complex animal behaviour using StarLogo TNG, a freely-available graphical programming environment. The practical consists of two sessions, the first of which guides students…

Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER)

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NICER engineer Steven Kenyon installs an X-ray detector onto the payload’s detector plate. The detectors are protected by red caps during installation because they are very sensitive to dust and other foreign object debris. The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is a NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity dedicated to studying the extraordinary environments — strong gravity, ultra-dense matter, and the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe — embodied by neutron stars. An attached payload aboard the International Space Station, NICER will deploy an instrument with unique capabilities for timing and spectroscopy of fast X-ray brightness fluctuations. The embedded Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology demonstration (SEXTANT) will use NICER data to validate, for the first time in space, technology that exploits pulsars as natural navigation beacons. Credit: NASA/Goddard/ Keith Gendreau NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Software System User’s Manual, Reference Manual, and Installation Guide for the Test Engineer’s Assistant System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-02-28

AD-A259 245 RESEARCH TRIANGLE INSTITUTE I SOFTWARE SYSTEM USER’S MANUAL, REFERENCE MANUAL, AND INSTALLATION GUIDE FOR THE TEST ENGINEER’S ASSISTANT...SYSTEM U. yD"VxC - February 28, 1989 Iŕ 5 G3 ’Contract No. DAAL01-86-C-0039 W Prepared for: Department of the Army Electronics Research and...Development Command Fort Monmouth, New Jersey 07703 I Prepared by: Center for Digital Systems ResearchI Research Triangle Institute Research Triangle Park, NC

The Fast Rotating Star 51 Oph Probed by VEGA/CHARA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jamialahmadi, N.; Berio, P.; Meilland, A.; Perraut, K.; Mourard, D.; Lopez, B.; Stee, P.; Nardetto, N.; Pichon, B.; Clausse, J. M.; Spang, A.; McAlister, H.; ten Brummelaar, T.

2015-12-01

Stellar rotation is a key in our understanding of both mass-loss and evolution of intermediate and massive stars. It can lead to anisotropic mass-loss in the form of radiative wind or an excretion disk. We used the VEGA visible beam combiner installed on the CHARA array that reaches a sub milliarcsecond resolution. We derived, for the first time, the extension and flattening of 51 Oph photosphere. We found an elongated ratio of 1.45 ± 0.12.

Design and installation package for the Sunmat Flat Plate solar collector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1978-01-01

The information used in evaluating the design of a liquid flat plate solar collector is reported. Included in this package are subsystem performance specification, installation, operation and maintenance manuals, collector sizing guides, and detailed drawings of the single-glazed collector.

Guide for fabricating and installing shallow ground water observation wells

Treesearch

Carolyn C. Bohn

2001-01-01

The fabrication and use of three tools to assist in the manual installation of shallow ground water observation wells are described. These tools are easily fabricated at a local machine shop. A method for calibrating pressure transducers is also described.

Determining the Performances of Guide Bearings for Hydroturbines,

DTIC Science & Technology

are used as guide supports of hydraulic units. Concrete results are presented for the design of the pilot bearing of a hydroturbine , which is installed at the main hydroelectric power station of the Vakhshskiy cascade. (Author)

Methods for correcting tilt anisoplanatism in laser-guide-star-based multiconjugate adaptive optics.

PubMed

Ellerbroek, B L; Rigaut, F

2001-10-01

Multiconjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) is a technique for correcting turbulence-induced phase distortions in three dimensions instead of two, thereby greatly expanding the corrected field of view of an adaptive optics system. This is accomplished with use of multiple deformable mirrors conjugate to distinct ranges in the atmosphere, with actuator commands computed from wave-front sensor (WFS) measurements from multiple guide stars. Laser guide stars (LGSs) must be used (at least for the forseeable future) to achieve a useful degree of sky coverage in an astronomical MCAO system. Much as a single LGS cannot be used to measure overall wave-front tilt, a constellation of multiple LGSs at a common range cannot detect tilt anisoplanatism. This error alone will significantly degrade the performance of a MCAO system based on a single tilt-only natural guide star (NGS) and multiple tilt-removed LGSs at a common altitude. We present a heuristic, low-order model for the principal source of tilt anisoplanatism that suggests four possible approaches to eliminating this defect in LGS MCAO: (i) tip/tilt measurements from multiple NGS, (ii) a solution to the LGS tilt uncertainty problem, (iii) additional higher-order WFS measurements from a single NGS, or (iv) higher-order WFS measurements from both sodium and Rayleigh LGSs at different ranges. Sample numerical results for one particular MCAO system configuration indicate that approach (ii), if feasible, would provide the highest degree of tilt anisoplanatism compensation. Approaches (i) and (iv) also provide very useful levels of performance and do not require unrealistically low levels of WFS measurement noise. For a representative set of parameters for an 8-m telescope, the additional laser power required for approach (iv) is on the order of 2 W per Rayleigh LGS.

Systematic neutron guide misalignment for an accelerator-driven spallation neutron source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zendler, C.; Bentley, P. M.

2016-08-01

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a long pulse spallation neutron source that is currently under construction in Lund, Sweden. A considerable fraction of the 22 planned instruments extend as far as 75-150 m from the source. In such long beam lines, misalignment between neutron guide segments can decrease the neutron transmission significantly. In addition to a random misalignment from installation tolerances, the ground on which ESS is built can be expected to sink with time, and thus shift the neutron guide segments further away from the ideal alignment axis in a systematic way. These systematic errors are correlated to the ground structure, position of buildings and shielding installation. Since the largest deformation is expected close to the target, even short instruments might be noticeably affected. In this study, the effect of this systematic misalignment on short and long ESS beam lines is analyzed, and a possible mitigation by overillumination of subsequent guide sections investigated.

The Monthly Sky Guide: Sixth Edition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ridpath, Ian; Tirion, Wil

2003-06-01

The latest edition of Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion's popular guide to the night sky is updated for planet positions and forthcoming eclipses up to the end of the year 2007. With one chapter for each month of the year, this is an easy-to-use handbook for anyone wanting to identify constellations, star clusters, nebulae, to plot the movement of planets, or witness solar and lunar eclipses. Most of the features discussed are visible to the naked eye and all can be seen with a small telescope or binoculars. Ian Ridpath has been a full-time writer, broadcaster and lecturer on astronomy and space for more than twenty-five years. He has written and edited more than 40 books, including A Comet Called Haley (Cambridge, 1985). Wil Tirion made his first star map in 1977. It showed stars to the magnitude of 6.5 and was issued as a set of maps by the British Astronomical Association in 1981. He has illustrated numerous books and magazines, including The Cambridge Star Atlas (Cambridge, 2001). Previous Edition Pb (1999): 0-521-66771-2

Experience from the construction and operation of the STAR PXL detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Greiner, L.; Anderssen, E. C.; Contin, G.; Schambach, J.; Silber, J.; Stezelberger, T.; Sun, X.; Szelezniak, M.; Vu, C.; Wieman, H. H.; Woodmansee, S.

2015-04-01

A new silicon based vertex detector called the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) was installed at the Soleniodal Tracker At RHIC (STAR) experiment for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) 2014 heavy ion run to improve the vertex resolution and extend the measurement capabilities of STAR in the heavy flavor domain. The HFT consists of four concentric cylinders around the STAR interaction point composed of three different silicon detector technologies based on strips, pads and for the first time in an accelerator experiment CMOS monolithic active pixels (MAPS) . The two innermost layers at a radius of 2.8 cm and 8 cm from the beam line are constructed with 400 high resolution MAPS sensors arranged in 10-sensor ladders mounted on 10 thin carbon fiber sectors giving a total silicon area of 0.16 m2. Each sensor consists of a pixel array of nearly 1 million pixels with a pitch of 20.7 μm with column-level discriminators, zero-suppression circuitry and output buffer memory integrated into one silicon die with a sensitive area of ~ 3.8 cm2. The pixel (PXL) detector has a low power dissipation of 170 mW/cm2, which allows air cooling. This results in a global material budget of 0.5% radiation length per layer for detector used in this run. A novel mechanical approach to detector insertion allows for the installation and integration of the pixel sub detector within a 12 hour period during an on-going STAR run. The detector specifications, experience from the construction and operation, lessons learned and initial measurements of the PXL performance in the 200 GeV Au-Au run will be presented.

Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER)

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NICER Optics Lead Takashi Okajima installs one of NICER’s 56 X-ray “concentrators,” each consisting of 24 concentric foils. To minimize the effects of Earth’s gravity on their alignment, the concentrator assemblies were installed from the outside edges toward the center of the plate that houses them. The payload’s 56 mirror assemblies concentrate X-rays onto silicon detectors to gather data that will probe the interior makeup of neutron stars, including those that appear to flash regularly, called pulsars. The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is a NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity dedicated to studying the extraordinary environments — strong gravity, ultra-dense matter, and the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe — embodied by neutron stars. An attached payload aboard the International Space Station, NICER will deploy an instrument with unique capabilities for timing and spectroscopy of fast X-ray brightness fluctuations. The embedded Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology demonstration (SEXTANT) will use NICER data to validate, for the first time in space, technology that exploits pulsars as natural navigation beacons. Credit: NASA/Goddard/ Keith Gendreau NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Wavefront error budget development for the Thirty Meter Telescope laser guide star adaptive optics system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilles, Luc; Wang, Lianqi; Ellerbroek, Brent

2008-07-01

This paper describes the modeling effort undertaken to derive the wavefront error (WFE) budget for the Narrow Field Infrared Adaptive Optics System (NFIRAOS), which is the facility, laser guide star (LGS), dual-conjugate adaptive optics (AO) system for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The budget describes the expected performance of NFIRAOS at zenith, and has been decomposed into (i) first-order turbulence compensation terms (120 nm on-axis), (ii) opto-mechanical implementation errors (84 nm), (iii) AO component errors and higher-order effects (74 nm) and (iv) tip/tilt (TT) wavefront errors at 50% sky coverage at the galactic pole (61 nm) with natural guide star (NGS) tip/tilt/focus/astigmatism (TTFA) sensing in J band. A contingency of about 66 nm now exists to meet the observatory requirement document (ORD) total on-axis wavefront error of 187 nm, mainly on account of reduced TT errors due to updated windshake modeling and a low read-noise NGS wavefront sensor (WFS) detector. A detailed breakdown of each of these top-level terms is presented, together with a discussion on its evaluation using a mix of high-order zonal and low-order modal Monte Carlo simulations.

Generating Artificial Reference Images for Open Loop Correlation Wavefront Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Townson, M. J.; Love, G. D.; Saunter, C. D.

2018-05-01

Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors for both solar and laser guide star adaptive optics (with elongated spots) need to observe extended objects. Correlation techniques have been successfully employed to measure the wavefront gradient in solar adaptive optics systems and have been proposed for laser guide star systems. In this paper we describe a method for synthesising reference images for correlation Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors with a larger field of view than individual sub-apertures. We then show how these supersized reference images can increase the performance of correlation wavefront sensors in regimes where large relative shifts are induced between sub-apertures, such as those observed in open-loop wavefront sensors. The technique we describe requires no external knowledge outside of the wavefront-sensor images, making it available as an entirely "software" upgrade to an existing adaptive optics system. For solar adaptive optics we show the supersized reference images extend the magnitude of shifts which can be accurately measured from 12% to 50% of the field of view of a sub-aperture and in laser guide star wavefront sensors the magnitude of centroids that can be accurately measured is increased from 12% to 25% of the total field of view of the sub-aperture.

Simulating the performance of adaptive optics techniques on FSO communications through the atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martínez, Noelia; Rodríguez Ramos, Luis Fernando; Sodnik, Zoran

2017-08-01

The Optical Ground Station (OGS), installed in the Teide Observatory since 1995, was built as part of ESA efforts in the research field of satellite optical communications to test laser telecommunication terminals on board of satellites in Low Earth Orbit and Geostationary Orbit. As far as one side of the link is settled on the Earth, the laser beam (either on the uplink or on the downlink) has to bear with the atmospheric turbulence. Within the framework of designing an Adaptive Optics system to improve the performance of the Free-Space Optical Communications at the OGS, turbulence conditions regarding uplink and downlink have been simulated within the OOMAO (Object-Oriented Matlab Adaptive Optics) Toolbox as well as the possible utilization of a Laser Guide Star to measure the wavefront in this context. Simulations have been carried out by reducing available atmospheric profiles regarding both night-time and day-time measurements and by having into account possible seasonal changes. An AO proposal to reduce atmospheric aberrations and, therefore, ameliorate FSO links performance is presented and analysed in this paper

The performance of the MROI fast tip-tilt correction system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, John; Buscher, David; Fisher, Martin; Haniff, Christopher; Rea, Alexander; Seneta, Eugene; Sun, Xiaowei; Wilson, Donald; Farris, Allen; Olivares, Andres

2014-07-01

The fast tip-tilt (FTT) correction system for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI) is being developed by the University of Cambridge. The design incorporates an EMCCD camera protected by a thermal enclosure, optical mounts with passive thermal compensation, and control software running under Xenomai real-time Linux. The complete FTT system is now undergoing laboratory testing prior to being installed on the first MROI unit telescope in the fall of 2014. We are following a twin-track approach to testing the closed-loop performance: tracking tip-tilt perturbations introduced by an actuated flat mirror in the laboratory, and undertaking end-to-end simulations that incorporate realistic higher-order atmospheric perturbations. We report test results that demonstrate (a) the high stability of the entire opto-mechanical system, realized with a completely passive design; and (b) the fast tip-tilt correction performance and limiting sensitivity. Our preliminary results in both areas are close to those needed to realise the ambitious stability and sensitivity goals of the MROI which aims to match the performance of current natural guide star adaptive optics systems.

Student Measurements of STFA 10AB (Theta Tauri)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gillette, Sean; Estrada, Chris; Estrada, Reed; Aguilera, Sophia; Chavez, Valerie; Givens, Jalynn; Lindorfer, Sarah; Michels, Kaylie; Mobley, Makenzie; Reder, Gabriel; Renteria, Kayla; Shattles, Jenna; Wilkin, Aiden; Woodbury, Maisy; Rhoades, Breauna; Rhoades, Mark

2017-04-01

Eighth grade students at Vanguard Preparatory School measured the double star STFA 10AB using a 22-inch Newtonian Alt/Az telescope and a Celestron Micro Guide eyepiece. Bellatrix was used as the calibration star. The calculated means of multiple observations of STFA 10AB resulted in a separation of 45.18,” a scale constant of 7.88 arcseconds per division, and position angle of 257.9°. These measurements were compared to the most recent values in the Washington Double Star Catalog.

A Principal's Guide to ILS Facilities Installation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, Tweed W.

1992-01-01

Outlines five facilities considerations that school principals need to address prior to the installation of an integrated learning system (ILS): (1) placement, i.e., labs or classrooms; (2) wiring; (3) environment, including furniture and noise; (4) security, including fire, theft, vandalism, and misuse; and (5) usability, including afterschool…

Soaring through the Universe. Astronomy through Children's Literature.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Letwinch, Joanne C.

This publication is a guide to teaching astronomy through the use of mythology and its literature in grades 3-6. The book is divided into the following seven sections: "Introduction"; Chapter 1: "Luna: the Moon"; Chapter 2: "Del Sol: the Sun"; Chapter 3: "The Planets"; Chapter 4: "Star Bright, Star Light"; Chapter 5: "Traveling through Space"; and…

Mini-Rocket User Guide

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-08-01

26 ISTC Simulation Comparisons ............................................................................... 29 STARS...Range Comparison Figure 8. ISTC Simulntioiz Comparisons 29 Mini-Rocket User Guide REAL-WORLD COMPARISON In particular, note the very high angle-of...not directly model the missile rigid body dynamics. The ISTC subsequently used Mini-Rocket as a driver to stimulate other models and as a risk

Synergies between exoplanet surveys and variable star research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovacs, Geza

2017-09-01

With the discovery of the first transiting extrasolar planetary system back in 1999, a great number of projects started to hunt for other similar systems. Because the incidence rate of such systems was unknown and the length of the shallow transit events is only a few percent of the orbital period, the goal was to monitor continuously as many stars as possible for at least a period of a few months. Small aperture, large field of view automated telescope systems have been installed with a parallel development of new data reduction and analysis methods, leading to better than 1% per data point precision for thousands of stars. With the successful launch of the photometric satellites CoRoT and Kepler, the precision increased further by one-two orders of magnitude. Millions of stars have been analyzed and searched for transits. In the history of variable star astronomy this is the biggest undertaking so far, resulting in photometric time series inventories immensely valuable for the whole field. In this review we briefly discuss the methods of data analysis that were inspired by the main science driver of these surveys and highlight some of the most interesting variable star results that impact the field of variable star astronomy.

77 FR 69508 - Inservice Inspection of Prestressed Concrete Containment Structures With Grouted Tendons

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-19

... real-time, multiple-strategy approach (i.e., appropriate grout design and installation, installed... is available in ADAMS) is provided the first time that a document is referenced. Revision 2 of... ``Regulatory Guide'' series. This series was developed to describe and make available to the public information...

Performing Witnessing: Dramatic Engagement, Trauma and Museum Installations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Erika

2018-01-01

This article offers a discussion of two interactive museum installations, 'Remembering the Children: Daniel's Story' at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, and the main exhibit at the Humanity House Museum in the Hague, Netherlands. Both are examples of what I term "self-guided dramas," taking the…

Door Hardware and Installations; Carpentry: 901894.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dade County Public Schools, Miami, FL.

The curriculum guide outlines a course designed to provide instruction in the selection, preparation, and installation of hardware for door assemblies. The course is divided into five blocks of instruction (introduction to doors and hardware, door hardware, exterior doors and jambs, interior doors and jambs, and a quinmester post-test) totaling…

Antipilferage Seal User’s Guide

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-10-01

seal is properly installed, ensure that there is no free play between the seal body and the wire. Verify and record the serial number. During post...and Record - Once the seal is properly installed, ensure that there is no free play between the seal body and the wire. During post-mortem...seal is properly installed, ensure that there is no free play between the seal body and the wire. Verify and record the serial number. During post

Software Management Environment (SME) installation guide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kistler, David; Jeletic, Kellyann

1992-01-01

This document contains installation information for the Software Management Environment (SME), developed for the Systems Development Branch (Code 552) of the Flight Dynamics Division of Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The SME provides an integrated set of management tools that can be used by software development managers in their day-to-day management and planning activities. This document provides a list of hardware and software requirements as well as detailed installation instructions and trouble-shooting information.

HORIZONTAL CONFIGURATION OF THE LASAGNA (TM) TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY USER GUIDE

EPA Science Inventory

This report is a user's guide that discusses the technology and operations unique to the installation and operation of the horizontal configuration of the Lasagna? integrated soil remediation technology. This technology, called Lasagna? because of the layers of electrodes and tr...

Enable Web-Based Tracking and Guiding by Integrating Location-Awareness with the World Wide Web

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Rui

2008-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this research is to enable web-based tracking and guiding by integrating location-awareness with the Worldwide Web so that the users can use various location-based applications without installing extra software. Design/methodology/approach: The concept of web-based tracking and guiding is introduced and the relevant issues are…

The star identification, pointing and tracking system of UVSTAR, an attached payload instrument system for the Shuttle Hitchhiker-M platform

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Decarlo, Francesco; Stalio, Roberto; Trampus, Paolo; Broadfoot, A. Lyle; Sandel, Bill R.; Sicuranza, Giovanni

1993-01-01

We describe an algorithm for star identification and pointing/tracking of a spaceborne electro-optical system and simulation analyses to test the algorithm. The algorithm will be implemented in the guiding system of UVSTAR, a spectrographic telescope for observations of astronomical and planetary sources operating in the 500-1250 A waveband at approximately 1 A resolution. The experiment is an attached payload and will fly as a Hitchhiker-M payload on the Shuttle. UVSTAR includes capabilities for independent target acquisition and tracking. The spectrograph package has internal gimbals that allow angular movement of plus or minus 3 deg from the central position. Rotation about the azimuth axis (parallel to the Shuttle z axis) and elevation axis (parallel to the Shuttle x axis) will actively position the field of view to center the target of interest in the fields of the spectrographs. The algorithm is based on an on-board catalog of stars. To identify star fields, the algorithm compares the positions of stars recorded by the guiding imager to positions computed from the on-board catalog. When the field has been identified, its position within the guiding imager field of view can be used to compute the pointing corrections necessary to point to a target of interest. In tracking mode, the software uses the past history to predict the quasi-periodic attitude control motions of the shuttle and sends pointing commands to cancel the motion and stabilize UVSTAR on the target. The guiding imager (guider) will have an 80-mm focal length and f/1.4 optics giving a field of view of 6 deg x 4.5 deg using a 385 x 288 pixel intensified CCD. It will be capable of providing high accuracy (better than 2 arc-sec) attitude determination from coarse (6 deg x 4.5 deg) initial knowledge of the pointing direction; and of pointing toward the target. It will also be capable of tracking at the same high accuracy with a processing time of less than a few hundredths of a second.

Measure Guideline: Water Management at Tub and Shower Assemblies

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dickson, B.

2011-12-01

Due to the high concentrations of water and the consequential risk of water damage to the home's structure a comprehensive water management system is imperative to protect the building assemblies underlying the finish surround of tub and shower areas. This guide shows how to install fundamental waterproofing strategies to prevent water related issues at shower and tub areas. When conducting a total gut rehab of a structure or constructing a new home, best practice installation and detailing for effective waterproofing are critically important at bathtub and shower assemblies. Water management issues in a structure may go unrecognized for long periods,more » so that when they are finally observed, the damage from long-term water exposure is extensive. A gut rehab is often undertaken when a home has experienced a natural disaster or when the homeowners are interested in converting an old, high-energy-use building into a high-quality, efficient structure that meets or exceeds one of the national energy standards, such as ENERGY STAR or LEED for homes. During a gut rehab, bath areas need to be replaced with diligent attention to detail. Employing effective water management practices in the installation and detailing of tub and shower assemblies will minimize or eliminate water issues within the building cavities and on the finished surfaces. A residential tub-and-shower surround or shower-stall assembly is designed to handle a high volume of water - 2.5 gallons per minute, with multiple baths occurring during a typical day. Transitions between dissimilar materials and connections between multiple planes must be installed with care to avoid creating a pathway for water to enter the building assemblies. Due to the high volume of water and the consequential risk of water damage to the home's structure, a comprehensive water management system is imperative to protect the building assemblies underlying the finish surround of tub and shower areas. At each stage of construction, successive trades must take care not to create a defect nor to compound or cover up a previous trade's defect. Covering a defect hides the inevitable point of failure and may even exacerbate the situation.« less

Insights for Planetarium and Museum Educators Revealed by the iSTAR international Study of Astronomical Reasoning Database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Slater, T. F.; Tatge, C. B.; Ratcliff, M.; Slater, S. J.

2016-12-01

Dedicated sky watchers through the centuries have long sought to find the best teaching methods to efficiently and effectively transfer vast amounts of accumulated star knowledge to the next generation of sky watchers. Although detailed maps specifying the names and locations of stars have been carefully displayed on spherical globes for thousands of years, it is the 1923 installation of a Zeiss-made, large, mechanical star projector in Munich that is often cited as the first modern projection planetarium for teaching astronomy. In the 1930's, impressive planetariums were installed Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, which then in turn served as a catalyst for additional planetarium construction. Planetarium construction increased rapidly in the United States due to federal funding to schools and museums through the 1958 US National Defense Education Act and the US went from one planetarium in 1930, to six in 1940, to about 100 in 1960, increasing to 200 in 1963, 450 by 1967—even before humans had landed on the Moon—and more than 1,000 by 1975. Today, nearly 3,000 permanent planetarium facilities are available to show the stars and heavenly motions to children and adults alike across the world, with perhaps another thousand portable planetariums adding to the available teaching venues. Simultaneous with their construction, discipline-based astronomy education have been trying to better understand, and ultimately improve, how people learn astronomy in the planetarium. A systematic analysis of planetarium education research articles, dissertations, and theses found in the recently constructed, community-wide, international Study of Astronomical Reasoning iSTAR database at istardatabase.org reveal that many of the systematic studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s using domes served by servo-mechanical star projects have been reproduced again in recent decades in theaters using digital video projection showing nearly the same results: student-passive, information-download lectures are largely ineffective at enhancing student learning and student attitudes toward science whether they occur in a traditional classroom or multi-media planetarium theater.

The numerical simulation tool for the MAORY multiconjugate adaptive optics system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arcidiacono, C.; Schreiber, L.; Bregoli, G.; Diolaiti, E.; Foppiani, I.; Agapito, G.; Puglisi, A.; Xompero, M.; Oberti, S.; Cosentino, G.; Lombini, M.; Butler, R. C.; Ciliegi, P.; Cortecchia, F.; Patti, M.; Esposito, S.; Feautrier, P.

2016-07-01

The Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics RelaY (MAORY) is and Adaptive Optics module to be mounted on the ESO European-Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). It is an hybrid Natural and Laser Guide System that will perform the correction of the atmospheric turbulence volume above the telescope feeding the Multi-AO Imaging Camera for Deep Observations Near Infrared spectro-imager (MICADO). We developed an end-to-end Monte- Carlo adaptive optics simulation tool to investigate the performance of a the MAORY and the calibration, acquisition, operation strategies. MAORY will implement Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics combining Laser Guide Stars (LGS) and Natural Guide Stars (NGS) measurements. The simulation tool implement the various aspect of the MAORY in an end to end fashion. The code has been developed using IDL and use libraries in C++ and CUDA for efficiency improvements. Here we recall the code architecture, we describe the modeled instrument components and the control strategies implemented in the code.

Migration in the shearing sheet and estimates for young open cluster migration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quillen, Alice C.; Nolting, Eric; Minchev, Ivan; De Silva, Gayandhi; Chiappini, Cristina

2018-04-01

Using tracer particles embedded in self-gravitating shearing sheet N-body simulations, we investigate the distance in guiding centre radius that stars or star clusters can migrate in a few orbital periods. The standard deviations of guiding centre distributions and maximum migration distances depend on the Toomre or critical wavelength and the contrast in mass surface density caused by spiral structure. Comparison between our simulations and estimated guiding radii for a few young supersolar metallicity open clusters, including NGC 6583, suggests that the contrast in mass surface density in the solar neighbourhood has standard deviation (in the surface density distribution) divided by mean of about 1/4 and larger than measured using COBE data by Drimmel and Spergel. Our estimate is consistent with a standard deviation of ˜0.07 dex in the metallicities measured from high-quality spectroscopic data for 38 young open clusters (<1 Gyr) with mean galactocentric radius 7-9 kpc.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schambach, Joachim; Anderssen, Eric; Contin, Giacomo

For the 2014 heavy ion run of RHIC a new micro-vertex detector called the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) was installed in the STAR experiment. The HFT consists of three detector subsystems with various silicon technologies arranged in 4 approximately concentric cylinders close to the STAR interaction point designed to improve the STAR detector’s vertex resolution and extend its measurement capabilities in the heavy flavor domain. The two innermost HFT layers are placed at radii of 2.8 cm and 8 cm from the beam line. These layers are constructed with 400 high resolution sensors based on CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensormore » (MAPS) technology arranged in 10-sensor ladders mounted on 10 thin carbon fiber sectors to cover a total silicon area of 0.16 m 2. Each sensor of this PiXeL (“PXL”) sub-detector combines a pixel array of 928 rows and 960 columns with a 20.7 μm pixel pitch together with front-end electronics and zero-suppression circuitry in one silicon die providing a sensitive area of ~3.8 cm 2. This sensor architecture features 185.6 μs readout time and 170 mW/cm 2 power dissipation. This low power dissipation allows the PXL detector to be air-cooled, and with the sensors thinned down to 50 μm results in a global material budget of only 0.4% radiation length per layer. A novel mechanical approach to detector insertion allows us to effectively install and integrate the PXL sub-detector within a 12 hour period during an on-going multi-month data taking period. The detector requirements, architecture and design, as well as the performance after installation, are presented in this paper.« less

Joint stars phased array radar antenna

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shnitkin, Harold

1994-10-01

The Joint STARS phased array radar system is capable of performing long range airborne surveillance and was used during the Persian Gulf war on two E8-A aircraft to fly many around-the-clock missions to monitor the Kuwait and Iraq battlefield from a safe distance behind the front lines. This paper is a follow-on to previous publications on the subject of the Joint STARS antenna and deals mainly with mission performance and technical aspects not previously covered. Radar data of troop movements and armament installations will be presented, a brief review of the antenna design is given, followed by technical discussions concerning the three-port interferometry, gain and sidelobe design approach, cost control, range test implementation and future improvements.

OPERATION DOMINIC. FISH BOWL AND CHRISTMAS SERIES. Organizational, Operational, Funding, Logistic, and Scientific Summary

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-09-01

Strypi rocket, XM-33 ’"’" 22 1.3 Nike -Hercules missile 23 2.1 Staff organization, TU 8.1.3- 34 2.2 Control diagram, TU 8.1.3 2.3...DAMPshlp lf 6.3 General experimental plan, radar attenuation I69 6.4 Nike -Apache rockets with C-band beacon payloads - I™ 6.5 Shipboard antenna...Shot Star Fish 198 6.34 Blast instrument installation, Project 1.1 199 6.35 Accelerometer installation, Project 1.1 199 6.36 Nike -Cajun rocket

Calibrating the SNfactory Integral Field Spectrograph (SNIFS) with SCALA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Küsters, Daniel; Lombardo, Simona; Kowalski, Marek; Aldering, Greg; Nordin, Jakob; Rigault, Mickael

2016-08-01

The SNIFS CALibration Apparatus (SCALA), a device to calibrate the Supernova Integral Field Spectrograph on the University Hawaii 2.2m telescope, was developed and installed in Spring 2014. SCALA produces an artificial planet with a diameter of 1° and a constant surface brightness. The wavelength of the beam can be tuned between 3200 Å and 10000 Å and has a bandwidth of 35 Å. The amount of light injected into the telescope is monitored with NIST calibrated photodiodes. SCALA was upgraded in 2015 with a mask installed at the entrance pupil of the UH88 telescope, ensuring that the illumination of the telescope by stars is similar to that of SCALA. With this setup, a first calibration run was performed in conjunction with the spectrophotometric observations of standard stars. We present first estimates for the expected systematic uncertainties of the in-situ calibration and discuss the results of tests that examine the influence of stray light produced in the optics.

5 CFR 532.315 - Additional survey jobs.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... data obtained in special industries WG-10 Communications Telephone Installer-Repairer WG-9 Central... Repairer WG-11 Electronic Computer Mechanic WG-11 Television Station Mechanic WG-11 Guided missiles Electronic Computer Mechanic WG-11 Guided Missile Mechanical Repairer WG-11 Heavy duty equipment Heavy Mobile...

36 CFR Appendix to Part 1193 - Advisory Guidance

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... weight of these factors is a compliance issue, under the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications... information and documentation includes user guides, installation guides, and product support communications...” rather than using the space bar. This is necessary because Braille translation software relies on the...

76 FR 58341 - Reports, Forms, and Recordkeeping Requirements

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-20

... Columbia. The national survey will be preceded by a pretest administered to 25 respondents. Participation... technology design and potential installation in vehicles. Interviews will average 15 minutes. In conducting... detection technology; Guide the technology design; and Guide a strategy for introduction of this technology...

Atmospheric turbulence profiling with SLODAR using multiple adaptive optics wavefront sensors.

PubMed

Wang, Lianqi; Schöck, Matthias; Chanan, Gary

2008-04-10

The slope detection and ranging (SLODAR) method recovers atmospheric turbulence profiles from time averaged spatial cross correlations of wavefront slopes measured by Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors. The Palomar multiple guide star unit (MGSU) was set up to test tomographic multiple guide star adaptive optics and provided an ideal test bed for SLODAR turbulence altitude profiling. We present the data reduction methods and SLODAR results from MGSU observations made in 2006. Wind profiling is also performed using delayed wavefront cross correlations along with SLODAR analysis. The wind profiling analysis is shown to improve the height resolution of the SLODAR method and in addition gives the wind velocities of the turbulent layers.

3D mapping of turbulence: a laboratory experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Louarn, Miska; Dainty, Christopher; Paterson, Carl; Tallon, Michel

2000-07-01

In this paper, we present the first experimental results of the 3D mapping method. 3D mapping of turbulence is a method to remove the cone effect with multiple laser guide stars and multiple deformable mirrors. A laboratory experiment was realized to verify the theoretical predictions. The setup consisted of two turbulent phase screens (made with liquid crystal devices) and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor. We describe the interaction matrix involved in reconstructing Zernike commands for multiple deformable mirror from the slope measurements made from laser guide stars. It is shown that mirror commands can indeed be reconstructed with the 3D mapping method. Limiting factors of the method, brought to light by this experiment are discussed.

Development of guided horizontal boring tools. Final report, June 1984-March 1991

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McDonald, W.J.; Herben, W.C.; Pittard, G.T.

Maurer Engineering Inc. (MEI), under a contract with the Gas Research Institute (GRI), has led a team of research and manufacturing companies with the goal of developing a guided boring tool for installing gas distribution piping. Studies indicated guided horizontal boring systems can provide gas utilities with a more effective and economical method for installing pipe than conventional techniques with a potential cost savings of at least 15% to 50%. A comprehensive state of technology review of horizontal boring tools identified concepts appropriate to being directionally controlled. Development of a universal system was found impractical because the requirements for shortmore » and extended range systems are significantly different. Concepts for steering and tracking were evaluated through lab and field experiments which progressed from proof of concept tests to cooperative field tests with gas utilities at the various stages of system development. The systems were brought to commercial status with needed modifications and the technology transferred to licensees who would market the systems. The program resulted in the development and commercialization of five distinct guided boring system. Pipe can now be installed more rapidly over longer distances with a minimal amount of excavation required for launching and retrieval. This means increased work crew productivity, reduced disturbance to landscaping and environmentally sensitive areas, and reduced traffic disruption and public inconvenience.« less

Astronomy: Minds-on the Universe. Supplemental Teaching Activities for Grades K-8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marble, Stephen; Fowler, Marilyn, Ed.

This teachers guide contains activities and materials created to teach astronomy concepts to children from grades K-8. It is organized into four units: (1) Earth and Stars; (2) Spheres and Orbits; (3) Stars and Gravity; and (4) Scales and Measurement. Activities are arranged within each unit around six content topics: (1) Earth; (2) Solar System;…

Five-Star Schools: Defining Quality in Early Childhood Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hertzog, Nancy B.

2012-01-01

Hakeem, Emily, Jose, and Latisha are all entering preschool in the fall. Their mothers are looking for the highest quality early childhood program they can find. Is there a guide for them to find a five-star program? Are all certified or accredited programs of equal quality? How do these parents and guardians know what defines quality in early…

Seeing in a New Light: Astro-1 Teacher's Guide with Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Essex Corp., Huntsville, AL.

For as long as people have walked the Earth, they have looked to the stars, have been inspired by their beauty and remoteness and have found their way over sea and deserts by their guidance. Since then, enormous progress has been made in the understanding of the stars, and today the expanding and fascinating world of high-energy astronomy awaits…

A large array of high-performance artificial stars using airship-supported small mirrors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Content, Robert; Foxwell, Mark; Murray, Graham J.

2004-10-01

We propose a practical system that can provide a large number of high performance artificial stars, of the order of a few hundred, using an array of small mirrors on an airship supported platform illuminated from the ground by a laser. Our concept offers several advantages over other guide star schemes: Airborne mirror arrays can furnish tip-tilt information; they also permit a considerable reduction in the total ground-laser power required; high intensity guide stars with very small angular image size are possible; and finally they offer very low scattered parasite laser light. More basic & simpler launch-laser & AO technologies can therefore be employed, with potentially huge cost savings, with potentially significant improvement in the quality of the AO correction. The general platform scheme and suitable lift technologies are also discussed. A novel concept for achieving precise positioning is presented whereby the platform & the lifting vehicle are linked by a tether, the platform having a degree of independent control. Our proposal would employ as the lift vehicle an autonomous high altitude airship of the type currently under widespread development in the commercial sector, for use as hubs for telecommunication networks, mobile telephone relay stations, etc.

Longwall mining installation having stable-hole plough

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hauschopp, A.

1981-07-21

A longwall mineral mining installation has a longwall conveyor, a plough guide attached to the face-side of the conveyor, and a main plough movable to and fro along the guide. A respective stable-hole plough is movable to and fro along portions of the plough guide adjacent to each end of the conveyor. Each stablehole plough is driven by means of a respective endless drive chain which passes round two end sprockets. One end sprocket of each stable-hole plough is positioned at the face-side of the conveyor part way therealong. The other end sprocket of each stable-hole plough is positioned atmore » the adjacent end of the conveyor on the goaf-side thereof. Each drive chain passes round a direction-changing unit positioned at the adjacent end of the conveyor.« less

Student Measurements of Double Star STF 747AB

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bateman, Grace; Funk, Benjamin; Gillette, Travis; Rhoades, Breauna; Rhoades, Mark; Schlosser, Ruth; Sharpe, Scott; Thompson, Leone

2017-04-01

Data gathered from a 22-Inch Newtonian Alt/Az telescope and a Celestron Micro Guide eyepiece were used to measure the double star STF 747AB. Students from Apple Valley High School determined the separation to be 39.97 arc sec and the position angle to be 227.91 degrees. The students also used data from the digitized sky survey and determined a separation of 39.99 arc sec and a position angle of 225 degrees. The research was semi-independent from the Vanguard Double Star Workshop 2016 in Apple Valley, California.

Thesaurus/Glossary System. User's Guide. Improved Systems for Managing the Control of Paperwork.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hurley, Jeanne S.; And Others

Intended primarily for the use of NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) staff, this document contains installation-specific information for the Thesaurus/Glossary computer system as installed at the HEW (Health, Education and Welfare) Data Management Center. The first of three sections provides an overview of system objectives,…

Installation, Operation, and Operator's Maintenance of Diesel-Engine-Driven Generator Sets.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marine Corps Inst., Washington, DC.

This student guide, one of a series of correspondence training courses designed to improve the job performance of members of the Marine Corps, contains three study units dealing with the skills needed by individuals responsible for the installation, operation, and maintenance of diesel engine-driven generator sets. The first two units cover…

VOLTTRON 3.0: User Guide

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lutes, Robert G.; Haack, Jereme N.; Katipamula, Srinivas

This document is a user guide for the deployment of the transactional network platform and agent/application development within VOLTTRON. The intent of this user guide is to provide a description of the functionality of the transactional network platform. This document describes how to deploy the platform, including installation, use, guidance, and limitations. It also describes how additional features can be added to enhance its current functionality.

Traveling through Time: The Forum Guide to Longitudinal Data Systems. Book Two of Four: Planning and Developing an LDS. NFES 2011-804

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Forum on Education Statistics, 2010

2010-01-01

This document, "Book Two of Four: Planning and Developing an LDS", is the second installment of this Forum (National Forum on Education Statistics) series of guides on longitudinal data systems (LDS). This second book in the guide series delves into the planning, implementation, and evaluation phases of a longitudinal data system (LDS)…

VOLTTRON 2.0: User Guide

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lutes, Robert G.; Haack, Jereme N.; Katipamula, Srinivas

This document is a user guide for the deployment of the transactional network platform and agent/application development within VOLTTRON. The intent of this user guide is to provide a description of the functionality of the transactional network platform. This document describes how to deploy the platform, including installation, use, guidance, and limitations. It also describes how additional features can be added to enhance its current functionality.

Brownfield to Brightfield Initiative in Oak Ridge, TN - 12346

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hough, Gil; Fairless, Chad

Experience characterizing, permitting, and restoring 'Brownfield' sites-government or industrial sites with restricted future use due to the presence or potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants-is being leveraged to identify opportunities for redevelopment into solar power generating facilities which, in this context, are called 'Brightfields'. Brownfield sites offer the expansive land necessary for large photovoltaic (PV) solar farms, but require an in-depth working knowledge of complicated regulatory restrictions and environmental constraints to develop them. As a part of the effort to identify opportunities for redevelopment of Brownfield sites for solar applications, a technical guide, was composed specifically for themore » development of solar generation on restricted use sites. The basis of the technical guide gives specific consideration to environmental requirements and installation methods breaking that into three areas for assessing: 1) levels of contamination, 2) ground penetration requirements, and 3) the requirements for aesthetics and maintenance. Brightfield projects are underway to support the technical guide and expand re-industrialization efforts for the former DOE Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Oak Ridge, TN. There are exciting opportunities to turn Brownfields into Brightfield solar energy solutions for meeting the future renewable energy needs of our country. Brownfields that offer the large surface area required for solar PV farms coupled with the technical guide for the installation of solar farms on restricted use sites supports efforts to develop the solar capacities and expertise to tap this future market. The initial projects designed following the technical guide will provide verification of the installation requirements and beneficial reuse of restricted use sites. (authors)« less

Sharper and Deeper Views with MACAO-VLTI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2003-05-01

"First Light" with Powerful Adaptive Optics System for the VLT Interferometer Summary On April 18, 2003, a team of engineers from ESO celebrated the successful accomplishment of "First Light" for the MACAO-VLTI Adaptive Optics facility on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory (Chile). This is the second Adaptive Optics (AO) system put into operation at this observatory, following the NACO facility ( ESO PR 25/01 ). The achievable image sharpness of a ground-based telescope is normally limited by the effect of atmospheric turbulence. However, with Adaptive Optics (AO) techniques, this major drawback can be overcome so that the telescope produces images that are as sharp as theoretically possible, i.e., as if they were taken from space. The acronym "MACAO" stands for "Multi Application Curvature Adaptive Optics" which refers to the particular way optical corrections are made which "eliminate" the blurring effect of atmospheric turbulence. The MACAO-VLTI facility was developed at ESO. It is a highly complex system of which four, one for each 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope, will be installed below the telescopes (in the Coudé rooms). These systems correct the distortions of the light beams from the large telescopes (induced by the atmospheric turbulence) before they are directed towards the common focus at the VLT Interferometer (VLTI). The installation of the four MACAO-VLTI units of which the first one is now in place, will amount to nothing less than a revolution in VLT interferometry . An enormous gain in efficiency will result, because of the associated 100-fold gain in sensitivity of the VLTI. Put in simple words, with MACAO-VLTI it will become possible to observe celestial objects 100 times fainter than now . Soon the astronomers will be thus able to obtain interference fringes with the VLTI ( ESO PR 23/01 ) of a large number of objects hitherto out of reach with this powerful observing technique, e.g. external galaxies. The ensuing high-resolution images and spectra will open entirely new perspectives in extragalactic research and also in the studies of many faint objects in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. During the present period, the first of the four MACAO-VLTI facilties was installed, integrated and tested by means of a series of observations. For these tests, an infrared camera was specially developed which allowed a detailed evaluation of the performance. It also provided some first, spectacular views of various celestial objects, some of which are shown here. PR Photo 12a/03 : View of the first MACAO-VLTI facility at Paranal PR Photo 12b/03 : The star HIC 59206 (uncorrected image). PR Photo 12c/03 : HIC 59206 (AO corrected image) PR Photo 12e/03 : HIC 69495 (AO corrected image) PR Photo 12f/03 : 3-D plot of HIC 69495 images (without and with AO correction) PR Photo 12g/03 : 3-D plot of the artificially dimmed star HIC 74324 (without and with AO correction) PR Photo 12d/03 : The MACAO-VLTI commissioning team at "First Light" PR Photo 12h/03 : K-band image of the Galactic Center PR Photo 12i/03 : K-band image of the unstable star Eta Carinae PR Photo 12j/03 : K-band image of the peculiar star Frosty Leo MACAO - the Multi Application Curvature Adaptive Optics facility ESO PR Photo 12a/03 ESO PR Photo 12a/03 [Preview - JPEG: 408 x 400 pix - 56k [Normal - JPEG: 815 x 800 pix - 720k] Captions : PR Photo 12a/03 is a front view of the first MACAO-VLTI unit, now installed at the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope. Adaptive Optics (AO) systems work by means of a computer-controlled deformable mirror (DM) that counteracts the image distortion induced by atmospheric turbulence. It is based on real-time optical corrections computed from image data obtained by a "wavefront sensor" (a special camera) at very high speed, many hundreds of times each second. The ESO Multi Application Curvature Adaptive Optics (MACAO) system uses a 60-element bimorph deformable mirror (DM) and a 60-element curvature wavefront sensor, with a "heartbeat" of 350 Hz (times per second). With this high spatial and temporal correcting power, MACAO is able to nearly restore the theoretically possible ("diffraction-limited") image quality of an 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope in the near-infrared region of the spectrum, at a wavelength of about 2 µm. The resulting image resolution (sharpness) of the order of 60 milli-arcsec is an improvement by more than a factor of 10 as compared to standard seeing-limited observations. Without the benefit of the AO technique, such image sharpness could only be obtained if the telescope were placed above the Earth's atmosphere. The technical development of MACAO-VLTI in its present form was begun in 1999 and with project reviews at 6 months' intervals, the project quickly reached cruising speed. The effective design is the result of a very fruitful collaboration between the AO department at ESO and European industry which contributed with the diligent fabrication of numerous high-tech components, including the bimorph DM with 60 actuators, a fast-reaction tip-tilt mount and many others. The assembly, tests and performance-tuning of this complex real-time system was assumed by ESO-Garching staff. Installation at Paranal The first crates of the 60+ cubic-meter shipment with MACAO components arrived at the Paranal Observatory on March 12, 2003. Shortly thereafter, ESO engineers and technicians began the painstaking assembly of this complex instrument, below the VLT 8.2-m KUEYEN telescope (formerly UT2). They followed a carefully planned scheme, involving installation of the electronics, water cooling systems, mechanical and optical components. At the end, they performed the demanding optical alignment, delivering a fully assembled instrument one week before the planned first test observations. This extra week provided a very welcome and useful opportunity to perform a multitude of tests and calibrations in preparation of the actual observations. AO to the service of Interferometry The VLT Interferometer (VLTI) combines starlight captured by two or more 8.2- VLT Unit Telescopes (later also from four moveable1.8-m Auxiliary Telescopes) and allows to vastly increase the image resolution. The light beams from the telescopes are brought together "in phase" (coherently). Starting out at the primary mirrors, they undergo numerous reflections along their different paths over total distances of several hundred meters before they reach the interferometric Laboratory where they are combined to within a fraction of a wavelength, i.e., within nanometers! The gain by the interferometric technique is enormous - combining the light beams from two telescopes separated by 100 metres allows observation of details which could otherwise only be resolved by a single telescope with a diameter of 100 metres. Sophisticated data reduction is necessary to interpret interferometric measurements and to deduce important physical parameters of the observed objects like the diameters of stars, etc., cf. ESO PR 22/02 . The VLTI measures the degree of coherence of the combined beams as expressed by the contrast of the observed interferometric fringe pattern. The higher the degree of coherence between the individual beams, the stronger is the measured signal. By removing wavefront aberrations introduced by atmospheric turbulence, the MACAO-VLTI systems enormously increase the efficiency of combining the individual telescope beams. In the interferometric measurement process, the starlight must be injected into optical fibers which are extremely small in order to accomplish their function; only 6 µm (0.006 mm) in diameter. Without the "refocussing" action of MACAO, only a tiny fraction of the starlight captured by the telescopes can be injected into the fibers and the VLTI would not be working at the peak of efficiency for which it has been designed. MACAO-VLTI will now allow a gain of a factor 100 in the injected light flux - this will be tested in detail when two VLT Unit Telescopes, both equipped with MACAO-VLTI's, work together. However, the very good performance actually achieved with the first system makes the engineers very confident that a gain of this order will indeed be reached. This ultimate test will be performed as soon as the second MACAO-VLTI system has been installed later this year. MACAO-VLTI First Light After one month of installation work and following tests by means of an artificial light source installed in the Nasmyth focus of KUEYEN, MACAO-VLTI had "First Light" on April 18 when it received "real" light from several astronomical obejcts. During the preceding performance tests to measure the image improvement (sharpness, light energy concentration) in near-infrared spectral bands at 1.2, 1.6 and 2.2 µm, MACAO-VLTI was checked by means of a custom-made Infrared Test Camera developed for this purpose by ESO. This intermediate test was required to ensure the proper functioning of MACAO before it is used to feed a corrected beam of light into the VLTI. After only a few nights of testing and optimizing of the various functions and operational parameters, MACAO-VLTI was ready to be used for astronomical observations. The images below were taken under average seeing conditions and illustrate the improvement of the image quality when using MACAO-VLTI . MACAO-VLTI - First Images Here are some of the first images obtained with the test camera at the first MACAO-VLTI system, now installed at the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope. ESO PR Photo 12b/03 ESO PR Photo 12b/03 [Preview - JPEG: 400 x 468 pix - 25k [Normal - JPEG: 800 x 938 pix - 291k] ESO PR Photo 12c/03 ESO PR Photo 12c/03 [Preview - JPEG: 400 x 469 pix - 14k [Normal - JPEG: 800 x 938 pix - 135k] Captions : PR Photos 12b-c/03 show the first image, obtained by the first MACAO-VLTI system at the 8.2-m VLT KUEYEN telescope in the infrared K-band (wavelength 2.2 µm). It displays images of the star HIC 59206 (visual magnitude 10) obtained before (left; Photo 12b/03 ) and after (right; Photo 12c/03 ) the adaptive optics system was switched on. The binary is separated by 0.120 arcsec and the image was taken under medium seeing conditions (0.75 arcsec) seeing. The dramatic improvement in image quality is obvious. ESO PR Photo 12d/03 ESO PR Photo 12d/03 [Preview - JPEG: 400 x 427 pix - 18k [Normal - JPEG: 800 x 854 pix - 205k] ESO PR Photo 12e/03 ESO PR Photo 12e/03 [Preview - JPEG: 483 x 400 pix - 17k [Normal - JPEG: 966 x 800 pix - 169k] Captions : PR Photo 12d/03 shows one of the best images obtained with MACAO-VLTI (logarithmic intensity scale). The seeing was 0.8 arcsec at the time of the observations and three diffraction rings can clearly be seen around the star HIC 69495 of visual magnitude 9.9. This pattern is only well visible when the image resolution is very close to the theoretical limit. The exposure of the point-like source lasted 100 seconds through a narrow K-band filter. It has a Strehl ratio (a measure of light concentration) of about 55% and a Full-Width- Half-Maximum (FWHM) of 0.060 arcsec. The 3-D plot ( PRPhoto 12e/03 ) demonstrates the tremendous gain in peak intensity of the AO image (right) in peak intensity as compared to "open-loop" image (the "noise" to the left) obtained without the benefit of AO. ESO PR Photo 12f/03 ESO PR Photo 12f/03 [Preview - JPEG: 494 x 400 pix - 20k [Normal - JPEG: 988 x 800 pix - 204k] Caption : PR Photo 12f/03 demonstrates the correction performance of MACAO-VLTI when using a faint guide star. The observed star ( HIC 74324 (stellar spectral type G0 and visual magnitude 9.4) was artificially dimmed by a neutral optical filter to visual magnitude 16.5. The observation was carried out in 0.55 arcsec seeing and with a rather short atmospheric correlation time of 3 milliseconds at visible wavelengths. The Strehl ratio in the 25-second K-band exposure is about 10% and the FWHM is 0.14 arcseconds. The uncorrected image is shown to the left for comparison. The improvement is again impressive, even for a star as faint as this, indicating that guide stars of this magnitude are feasible during future observations. ESO PR Photo 12g/03 ESO PR Photo 12g/03 [Preview - JPEG: 528 x 400 pix - 48k [Normal - JPEG: 1055 x 800 pix - 542k] Captions : PR Photo 12g/03 shows some of the MACAO-VLTI commissioning team members in the VLT Control Room at the moment of "First Light" during the night between April 18-19, 2003. Sitting: Markus Kasper, Enrico Fedrigo - Standing: Robin Arsenault, Sebastien Tordo, Christophe Dupuy, Toomas Erm, Jason Spyromilio, Rob Donaldson (all from ESO). PR Photos 12b-c/03 show the first image in the infrared K-band (wavelength 2.2 µm) of a star (visual magnitude 10) obtained without and with image corrections by means of adaptive optics. PR Photo 12d/03 displays one of the best images obtained with MACAO-VLTI during the early tests. It shows a Strehl ratio (measure of light concentration) that fulfills the specifications according to which MACAO-VLTI was built. This enormous improvement when using AO techniques is clearly demonstrated in PR Photo 12e/03 , with the uncorrected image profile (left) hardly visible when compared to the corrected profile (right). PR Photo 11f/03 demonstrates the correction capabilities of MACAO-VLTI when using a faint guide star. Tests using different spectral types showed that the limiting visual magnitude varies between 16 for early-type B-stars and about 18 for late-type M-stars. Astronomical Objects seen at the Diffraction Limit The following examples of MACAO-VLTI observations of two well-known astronomical objects were obtained in order to provisionally evaluate the research opportunities now opening with MACAO-VLTI. They may well be compared with space-based images. The Galactic Center ESO PR Photo 12h/03 ESO PR Photo 12h/03 [Preview - JPEG: 693 x 400 pix - 46k [Normal - JPEG: 1386 x 800 pix - 403k] Caption : PR Photo 12h/03 shows a 90-second K-band exposure of the central 6 x 13 arcsec 2 around the Galactic Center obtained by MACAO-VLTI under average atmospheric conditions (0.8 arcsec seeing). Although the 14.6 magnitude guide star is located roughly 20 arcsec from the field center - this leading to isoplanatic degradation of image sharpness - the present image is nearly diffraction limited and has a point-source FWHM of about 0.115 arcsec. The center of our own galaxy is located in the Sagittarius constellation at a distance of approximately 30,000 light-years. PR Photo 12h/03 shows a short-exposure infrared view of this region, obtained by MACAO-VLTI during the early test phase. Recent AO observations using the NACO facility at the VLT provide compelling evidence that a supermassive black hole with 2.6 million solar masses is located at the very center, cf. ESO PR 17/02 . This result, based on astrometric observations of a star orbiting the black hole and approaching it to within a distance of only 17 light-hours, would not have been possible without images of diffraction limited resolution. Eta Carinae ESO PR Photo 12i/03 ESO PR Photo 12i/03 [Preview - JPEG: 400 x 482 pix - 25k [Normal - JPEG: 800 x 963 pix - 313k] Caption : PR Photo 12i/03 displays an infrared narrow K-band image of the massive star Eta Carinae . The image quality is difficult to estimate because the central star saturated the detector, but the clear structure of the diffraction spikes and the size of the smallest features visible in the photo indicate a near-diffraction limited performance. The field measures about 6.5 x 6.5 arcsec 2. Eta Carinae is one of the heaviest stars known, with a mass that probably exceeds 100 solar masses. It is about 4 million times brighter than the Sun, making it one of the most luminous stars known. Such a massive star has a comparatively short lifetime of about 1 million years only and - measured in the cosmic timescale- Eta Carinae must have formed quite recently. This star is highly unstable and prone to violent outbursts. They are caused by the very high radiation pressure at the star's upper layers, which blows significant portions of the matter at the "surface" into space during violent eruptions that may last several years. The last of these outbursts occurred between 1835 and 1855 and peaked in 1843. Despite its comparaticely large distance - some 7,500 to 10,000 light-years - Eta Carinae briefly became the second brightest star in the sky at that time (with an apparent magnitude -1), only surpassed by Sirius. Frosty Leo ESO PR Photo 12j/03 ESO PR Photo 12j/03 [Preview - JPEG: 411 x 400 pix - 22k [Normal - JPEG: 821 x 800 pix - 344k] Caption : PR Photo 12j/03 shows a 5 x 5 arcsec 2 K-band image of the peculiar star known as "Frosty Leo" obtained in 0.7 arcsec seeing. Although the object is comparatively bright (visual magnitude 11), it is a difficult AO target because of its extension of about 3 arcsec at visible wavelengths. The corrected image quality is about FWHM 0.1 arcsec. Frosty Leo is a magnitude 11 (post-AGB) star surrounded by an envelope of gas, dust, and large amounts of ice (hence the name). The associated nebula is of "butterfly" shape (bipolar morphology) and it is one of the best known examples of the brief transitional phase between two late evolutionary stages, asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and the subsequent planetary nebulae (PNe). For a three-solar-mass object like this one, this phase is believed to last only a few thousand years, the wink of an eye in the life of the star. Hence, objects like this one are very rare and Frosty Leo is one of the nearest and brightest among them.

Thermal, Structural, and Optical Analysis of a Balloon-Based Imaging System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borden, Michael; Lewis, Derek; Ochoa, Hared; Jones-Wilson, Laura; Susca, Sara; Porter, Michael; Massey, Richard; Clark, Paul; Netterfield, Barth

2017-03-01

The Subarcsecond Telescope And BaLloon Experiment, STABLE, is the fine stage of a guidance system for a high-altitude ballooning platform designed to demonstrate subarcsecond pointing stability over one minute using relatively dim guide stars in the visible spectrum. The STABLE system uses an attitude rate sensor and the motion of the guide star on a detector to control a Fast Steering Mirror to stabilize the image. The characteristics of the thermal-optical-mechanical elements in the system directly affect the quality of the point-spread function of the guide star on the detector, so a series of thermal, structural, and optical models were built to simulate system performance and ultimately inform the final pointing stability predictions. This paper describes the modeling techniques employed in each of these subsystems. The results from those models are discussed in detail, highlighting the development of the worst-case cold and hot cases, the optical metrics generated from the finite element model, and the expected STABLE residual wavefront error and decenter. Finally, the paper concludes with the predicted sensitivities in the STABLE system, which show that thermal deadbanding, structural pre-loading, and self-deflection under different loading conditions, and the speed of individual optical elements were particularly important to the resulting STABLE optical performance.

The Architect's Guide to Mechanical Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andrews, F. T.

The principles and problems of designing new building mechanical systems are discussed in this reference source in the light of data on the functions and operation of mechanical systems. As a practical guide to understanding mechanical systems it describes system types, functions, space requirements, weights, installation, maintenance and…

Carpentry and Finishing Procedures. Building Maintenance. Module II. Instructor's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawk, Sam; Brunk, Art

This curriculum guide, keyed to the building maintenance competency profile developed by industry and education professionals, provides three units on carpentry and finishing procedures. The first unit, Exterior Carpentry, contains the following lessons: carpentry safety procedures, ladder and scaffolding safety, door installation/repair,…

Transition from Nondestructive Testing (NDT) to Structural Health Monitoring (SHM): potential and challenges (presentation video)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cawley, Peter

2014-03-01

There is a gradual shift in emphasis from periodic inspection with detachable transducers (NDT) to permanently installed monitoring systems giving information about the structural integrity at pre-programmed intervals or on demand (SHM). The drivers of this change are discussed, together with the requirements of successful SHM systems. Particular issues are that NDT often involves scanning and this is not possible with typical SHM configurations; it therefore becomes important to cover a significant area of structure from each transducer position. Guided waves provide a possible solution to this problem and permanently installed guided wave pipe inspection systems are now available. The sensitivity obtained with a permanently installed system is significantly better than that in a one-off test as baseline subtraction can be employed. However, this is far from trivial as it is necessary to compensate for benign changes such as temperature. The guided wave technique does not provide accurate remaining thickness information and is best complemented by point measurements at selected locations. Another issue is that the SHM transducers must survive in operational conditions, which is particularly difficult at high temperatures. Recent work at Imperial College and associated spin-out companies on solutions to these problems is discussed.

Navigating Space by the Stars

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-06-19

A tool that has helped guide sailors across oceans for centuries is now being tested aboard the International Space Station as a potential emergency navigation tool for guiding future spacecraft across the cosmos. The Sextant Navigation investigation tests use of a hand-held sextant aboard the space station. Sextants have a telescope-like optical sight to take precise angle measurements between pairs of stars from land or sea, enabling navigation without computer assistance. NASA’s Gemini missions conducted the first sextant sightings from a spacecraft, and designers built a sextant into Apollo vehicles as a navigation backup in the event the crew lost communications from their spacecraft. Jim Lovell demonstrated on Apollo 8 that sextant navigation could return a space vehicle home. Astronauts conducted additional sextant experiments on Skylab. Read more about the Sextant experiment happening aboard the space station: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/Sextant_ISS HD Download: https://archive.org/details/jsc2018m000418_Navigating_Space_by_the_Stars

Navigating Space by the Stars - 16x9

NASA Image and Video Library

2018-06-18

A tool that has helped guide sailors across oceans for centuries is now being tested aboard the International Space Station as a potential emergency navigation tool for guiding future spacecraft across the cosmos. The Sextant Navigation investigation tests use of a hand-held sextant aboard the space station. Sextants have a telescope-like optical sight to take precise angle measurements between pairs of stars from land or sea, enabling navigation without computer assistance. NASA’s Gemini missions conducted the first sextant sightings from a spacecraft, and designers built a sextant into Apollo vehicles as a navigation backup in the event the crew lost communications from their spacecraft. Jim Lovell demonstrated on Apollo 8 that sextant navigation could return a space vehicle home. Astronauts conducted additional sextant experiments on Skylab. Read more about the Sextant experiment happening aboard the space station: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/Sextant_ISS HD Download: https://archive.org/details/jsc2018m000418_Navigating_Space_by_the_Stars

The Gravity Probe B Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kolodziejczak, Jeffrey

2008-01-01

This presentation briefly describes the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) Experiment which is designed to measure parts of Einstein's general theory of relativity by monitoring gyroscope orientation relative to a distant guide star. To measure the miniscule angles predicted by Einstein's theory, it was necessary to build near-perfect gyroscopes that were approximately 50 million times more precise than the best navigational gyroscopes. A telescope mounted along the central axis of the dewar and spacecraft provided the experiment's pointing reference to a guide star. The telescope's image divide precisely split the star's beam into x-axis and y-axis components whose brightness could be compared. GP-B's 650-gallon dewar, kept the science instrument inside the probe at a cryogenic temperature for 17.3 months and also provided the thruster propellant for precision attitude and translation control. Built around the dewar, the GP-B spacecraft was a total-integrated system, comprising both the space vehicle and payload, dedicated as a single entity to experimentally testing predictions of Einstein's theory.

New CO and HCN sources associated with IRAS carbon stars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

NGUYEN-Q-RIEU; Epchtein, N.; TRUONG-BACH; Cohen, M.

1987-01-01

Emission of CO and HCN was detected in 22 out of a sample of 53 IRAS sources classified as unidentified carbon-rich objects. The sample was selected according to the presence of the silicon carbide feature as revealed by low-resolution spectra. The molecular line widths indicate that the CO and HCN emission arises from the circumstellar envelopes of very highly evolved stars undergoing mass loss. The visible stars tend to be deficient in CO as compared with unidentified sources. Most the detected CO and HCN IRAS stars are distinct and thick-shelled objects, but their infrared and CO luminosities are similar to those of IRC + 102156 AFGL and IRC-CO evolved stars. The 12 micron flux seems to be a good indicator of the distance, hence a guide for molecular searches.

Adaptive optics system for Cassegrain focus of SUBARU 8.2-m telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takami, Hideki; Takato, Naruhisa; Otsubo, Masashi; Kanzawa, Tomio; Kamata, Yukiko; Nakashima, Koji; Iye, Masanori

1998-09-01

The adaptive optics system for Subaru 8.2m telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory Japan has been developed for the Cassegrain ear-IR instruments, CIAO and IRCS. The system consists of a wavefront curvature sensor with 36 subaperture photon-counting avalanche photodiode modules and a bimorph deformable mirror with 36 electrodes. The expected Strehl ratio at K band exceeds 0.4 for objects that are located close enough to a bright guide star as faint as R equals 16 mag at the median seeing of 0.45 arcsec at Mauna Kea. The system will be in operation in 1999 as a natural guide star system, and will eventually be upgraded to a laser guide star system in cooperating an IR wavefront tilt sensor to provide nearly full sky. The construction of this common use system to Subaru telescope is now underway in our laboratory in Tokyo. Prior to starting the fabrication of this common use system, a full size prototype system was constructed and tested with the 1.6 m IR telescope at our observatory in Tokyo. This system has the identical optical design, deformable mirror, loop control computer to those for the Subaru system, while the wavefront sensing detectors were less-sensitive analog APDs. We succeeded in getting closed loop images of stars in K band with diffraction limited core. The Strehl ratio was around 0.5 and the factor of improvement was about 20 at K-band under the average seeing of 2 arcsec during the observation. The loop sped of the system was 2 K corrections per second.

Practical aspects of instrumentation system installation, volume 13

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Borek, R. W.; Pool, A. (Editor); Sanderson, K. C. (Editor)

1981-01-01

A review of factors influencing installation of aircraft flight test instrumentation is presented. Requirements, including such factors as environment, reliability, maintainability, and system safety are discussed. The assessment of the mission profile is followed by an overview of electrical and mechanical installation factors with emphasis on shock/vibration isolation systems and standardization of the electric wiring installation, two factors often overlooked by instrumentation engineers. A discussion of installation hardware reviews the performance capabilities of wiring, connectors, fuses and circuit breakers, and a guide to proper selections is provided. The discussion of the installation is primarily concerned with the electrical wire routing, shield terminations and grounding. Also inclued are some examples of installation mistakes that could affect system accuracy. System verification procedures and special considerations such as sneak circuits, pyrotechnics, aircraft antenna patterns, and lightning strikes are discussed.

Adaptive Optics for the Thirty Meter Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellerbroek, Brent

2013-12-01

This paper provides an overview of the progress made since the last AO4ELT conference towards developing the first-light AO architecture for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). The Preliminary Design of the facility AO system NFIRAOS has been concluded by the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics. Work on the client Infrared Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) has progressed in parallel, including a successful Conceptual Design Review and prototyping of On-Instrument WFS (OIWFS) hardware. Progress on the design for the Laser Guide Star Facility (LGSF) continues at the Institute of Optics and Electronics in Chengdu, China, including the final acceptance of the Conceptual Design and modest revisions for the updated TMT telescope structure. Design and prototyping activities continue for lasers, wavefront sensing detectors, detector readout electronics, real-time control (RTC) processors, and deformable mirrors (DMs) with their associated drive electronics. Highlights include development of a prototype sum frequency guide star laser at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (Beijing); fabrication/test of prototype natural- and laser-guide star wavefront sensor CCDs for NFIRAOS by MIT Lincoln Laboratory and W.M. Keck Observatory; a trade study of RTC control algorithms and processors, with prototyping of GPU and FPGA architectures by TMT and the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory; and fabrication/test of a 6x60 actuator DM prototype by CILAS. Work with the University of British Columbia LIDAR is continuing, in collaboration with ESO, to measure the spatial/temporal variability of the sodium layer and characterize the sodium coupling efficiency of several guide star laser systems. AO performance budgets have been further detailed. Modeling topics receiving particular attention include performance vs. computational cost tradeoffs for RTC algorithms; optimizing performance of the tip/tilt, plate scale, and sodium focus tracking loops controlled by the NGS on-instrument wavefront sensors, sky coverage, PSF reconstruction for LGS MCAO, and precision astrometry for the galactic center and other observations.

Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor and Two-Gyro Control Law Design, Implementation, and On-Orbit Performance. Part 3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clapp, Brian R.

2005-01-01

For fifteen years, the science mission of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) required using at least three rate gyros for n Controlling with alternate sensors to replace failing gyros can extend the HST science mission. A two-gyro control law has been designed and implemented using magnetometers, star trackers, and Fine Guidance Sensors (FGSs) to control vehicle rate about the missing gyro axis. The three aforementioned sensors are used in succession to reduce HST boresight jitter to less than 7 milli-arcseconds rms prior to science imaging. The Magnetometer and 2-Gyro (M2G) control law is used for large angle maneuvers and attitude control during earth. occultation of star trackers and FGSs. The Tracker and 2-Gyro (T2G) control law dampens M2G rates and controls attitude in preparation for guide star acquisition with the FGSs. The Fine Guidance Sensor and 2-Gyro (F2G) control law dampens T2G rates and controls HST attitude during science imaging. This paper describes the F2G control law. Details of F2G algorithms are presented, including computation of the FGS-measured star vector using non-linear equations, optimal estimation of HST body rate, design of the F2G control laws and gyro bias observer, SISO and MIMO linear stability analyses, and design of the F2G intramode transition and guide star acquisition logic. Results from an FGS flight spare ground test are presented that define acceptable HST jitter levels for successful guide star acquisition under two-gyro control. HST-specific disturbance and noise models are described that are based upon flight telemetry; these models are used in HSTSIM, a high-fidelity non-linear time domain simulation, to predict HST on-orbit disturbance responses and FGS interferometer Loss of Lock (LOL) characteristics under F2G control. Additional HSTSIM results are presented predicting HST quiescent boresight jitter performance, science maneuver performance, and observer configuration performance during F2G operation. Simulation results are compared to on-orbit data b m F2G flight tests performed in February 2005. Science images and point spread functions from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) High Resolution Camera (HRC) are presented that compare HST science performance under F2G versus three-gyro control. Images and flight telemetry show that HST boresight jitter with the new F2G control law is usually less than jitter using the three-gyro law, and HST boresight jitter during F2G operation is dependent upon guide star magnitude.

29 CFR 1926.1053 - Ladders.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... ascend or descend without continually having to hold, push or pull any part of the device, leaving both... the carrier. When the system is exposed to wind, cable guides for flexible carriers shall be installed... mountings and cable guides shall not reduce the design strength of the ladder. (24) The side rails of...

29 CFR 1926.1053 - Ladders.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... ascend or descend without continually having to hold, push or pull any part of the device, leaving both... the carrier. When the system is exposed to wind, cable guides for flexible carriers shall be installed... mountings and cable guides shall not reduce the design strength of the ladder. (24) The side rails of...

Creating a Campus Sustainability Revolving Loan Fund: A Guide for Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diebolt, Asa; Den Herder-Thomas, Timothy

2007-01-01

This publication describes innovative and powerful mechanisms for financing sustainability projects on campus including energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy installations. The guide provides step-by-step guidance for establishing revolving loan funds for campus sustainability, based on the experiences of the authors in setting up such a…

THE ELECTRONIC CLASSROOM--A GUIDE FOR PLANNING.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CROSSMAN, DAVID M.

GUIDES TO AID ADMINISTRATORS IN THE SELECTION AND INSTALLATION OF ELECTRONIC CLASSROOMS ARE PRESENTED. ADVANTAGES OF AN ELECTRONIC CLASSROOM ARE THAT A VARIETY OF MATERIALS CAN BE USED, SPEECH PATTERNS CAN BE RECORDED FOR SUBSEQUENT EVALUATION, RECORDED LESSONS CAN BE USED AGAIN AND AGAIN, PROGRESS OF INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS CAN BE MONITORED WITHOUT…

30 CFR 57.19019 - Guide ropes.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Guide ropes. 57.19019 Section 57.19019 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR METAL AND NONMETAL MINE SAFETY AND... rope at installation shall meet the minimum value calculated as follows: Minimum value=Static Load×5.0. ...

Acrilan Contract Carpet Specification Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monsanto Textiles Co., Atlanta, GA.

The purpose of this guide is to assist specifiers in properly specifying carpet made of Monsanto Acrilan acrylic fiber. As carpet is used in an expanding range of applications, it must meet increasing and varying regulatory requirements. Performance needs vary with the type of environment in which the carpet is installed. Carpet construction must…

Radiative Feedback from Massive Stars as Traced by Multiband Imaging and Spectroscopic Mosaics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berne, Olivier; Habart, Emilie; Peeters, Els; Abergel, A.; Bergin, E.; Bernard-Salas, J.; Bron, E.; Cami, J.; Cazaux, S.; Dartois, E.; Fuente, A.; Goicoechea, J.; Gordon, K.; Onaka, T.; Robberto, M.; Roellig, M.; Tielens, A.; Vincente, S.; Wolfire, M.; Okada, Y.

2017-11-01

Massive stars disrupt their natal molecular cloud material by dissociating molecules, ionizing atoms and molecules, and heating the gas and dust. These processes drive the evolution of interstellar matter in our Galaxy and throughout the Universe from the era of vigorous star formation at redshifts of 1-3, to the present day. Much of this interaction occurs in Photo-Dissociation Regions (PDRs) where far-ultraviolet photons of these stars create a largely neutral, but warm region of gas and dust. PDR emission dominates the IR spectra of star-forming galaxies and also provides a unique tool to study in detail the physical and chemical processes that are relevant for most of the mass in inter- and circumstellar media including diffuse clouds, protoplanetary disk- and molecular cloud surfaces, globules, planetary nebulae, and starburst galaxies. We propose to provide template datasets designed to identify key PDR characteristics in JWST spectra in order to guide the preparation of Cycle 2 proposals on star-forming regions in our Galaxy and beyond. We plan to obtain the first spatially resolved, high spectral resolution IR observations of a PDR using NIRCam, NIRSpec, and MIRI. These data will test widely used theoretical models and extend them into the JWST era. We have engaged the broader community as exemplified by the supporting large international team of 138 scientists. We will assist the community interested in JWST observations of PDRs through science-enabling products that will guide observational planning and allow fast data analysis. We will train the community through telecons and dedicated workshops.

Thematic Journeys. I'll Never Draw a Perfect Star

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zingher, Gary

2004-01-01

Children take enormous pride in their drawing abilities. They like bringing to life a specific object whether it is a star or a cat or a tree, and they will likely be frustrated until they can get it just right. Drawing is a way of thinking in motion, the brain guiding the hand, and it demonstrates strongly another type of intelligence. As a…

Open Bottom Production in Au+Au Collisions at s NN = 200 GeV with the STAR Experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Shenghui

In these proceedings, we present measurements of open bottom hadron production through multiple decay channels in Au+Au collisions at s NN = 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Namely, measurements of nuclear modification factors for electrons, J/ψ, and D0 from open bottom hadron decays are shown. The decay products are topologically identified utilizing the Heavy Flavor Tracker, a silicon vertex detector installed at STAR during the period of 2014 - 2016. It enables precise reconstruction of displaced decay vertices. The results show large suppression for non-prompt J/ψ and non-prompt D0 at high transverse momenta, and indicate less suppression for electrons from bottom hadron decays than for those from charm hadron decays at ˜ 2σ significance level.

Traveling through Time: The Forum Guide to Longitudinal Data Systems. Book Three of Four: Effectively Managing LDS Data. NFES 2011-805

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Forum on Education Statistics, 2011

2011-01-01

This document, "Book Three of Four: Effectively Managing LDS Data," is the third installment of this Forum series of guides on longitudinal data systems (LDS). This third book in the guide series discusses organizational issues aimed at moving the project forward and ensuring that the data are of high quality so that users may leverage…

Teachers' and Students' Perception of Instructional Supervision on Capacity Building in Electrical Installation Trade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eze, Ogwa Christopher

2015-01-01

This research was conducted to ascertain teachers' and students perception of instructional supervision in relation to capacity building in electrical installation trade in technical colleges. Three research questions and a null hypothesis were employed to guide the study. Descriptive survey was adopted. A 23-item questionnaire was used to elicit…

KSC01KODI046

NASA Image and Video Library

2001-05-31

KODIAK ISLAND, Alaska -- Technicians install Orbis 21D Equipment Section Boost Motor, the second stage of the Athena 1 launch vehicle, at Kodiak Island, Alaska, as processing for the launch of Kodiak Star proceeds. The first orbital launch to take place from Alaska's Kodiak Launch Complex, Kodiak Star is scheduled to lift off on a Lockheed Martin Athena I launch vehicle on Sept. 17 during a two-hour window that extends from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. ADT. The payloads aboard include the Starshine 3, sponsored by NASA, and the PICOSat, PCSat and Sapphire, sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program.

Look to the Sky. An All-Purpose Interdisciplinary Guide to Astronomy. Grades 4-12.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeBruin, Jerry; Murad, Don

This guide features materials and activities about stars for integration into other academic disciplines. Part one describes how to begin to look to the sky, including usage of the camera, binoculars, and telescope. Part two, "Keep Up to Date," introduces information on resource materials, such as astronomy books, magazines, newsletters,…

They Snooze, You Lose: The Educator's Guide to Successful Presentations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burmark, Lynell

2011-01-01

In today's increasingly visual world, the art of giving presentations is a much-needed talent. "They Snooze, You Lose", provides a comprehensive guide made especially for teachers and administrators who want to become presentation "stars" in their classrooms, at board meetings, or any time they are in front of an audience. This book describes how…

The Gemini-South MCAO operational model: insights on a new era of telescope operation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trancho, Gelys; Bec, Matthieu; Artigau, Etienne; d'Orgeville, Celine; Gratadour, Damien; Rigaut, Francois J.; Walls, Brian

2008-07-01

The Gemini Observatory is implementing a Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) system as a facility instrument for the Gemini South telescope (GeMS). The system will include 5 Laser Guide Stars, 3 Natural Guide Stars, and 3 deformable mirrors, optically conjugated at different altitudes, to achieve near-uniform atmospheric compensation over a one arc minute square field of view. This setup implies some level of operational complexity. In this paper we describe how GeMS will be integrated into the flow of Gemini operations, from the observing procedures necessary to execute the programs in the queue (telescope control software, observing tools, sequence executor) to the safety implementation needed such as spotters/ASCAM, space command and laser traffic control software.

High-Precision Studies of Compact Variable Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bloemen, Steven

2014-10-01

This book, which is a reworked and updated version of Steven Bloemen's original PhD thesis, reports on several high-precision studies of compact variable stars. Its strength lies in the large variety of observational, theoretical and instrumentation techniques that are presented and used and paves the way towards new and detailed asteroseismic applications of single and binary subdwarf stars. Close binary stars are studied using high cadence spectroscopic datasets collected with state of the art electron multiplying CCDs and analysed using Doppler tomography visualization techniques. The work touches upon instrumentation, presenting the calibration of a new fast, multi-colour camera installed at the Mercator Telescope on La Palma. The thesis also includes theoretical work on the computation of the temperature range in which stellar oscillations can be driven in subdwarf B-stars. Finally, the highlight of the thesis is the measurement of velocities of stars using only photometric data from NASA's Kepler satellite. Doppler beaming causes stars to appear slightly brighter when they move towards us in their orbits, and this subtle effect can be seen in Kepler's brightness measurements. The thesis presents the first validation of such velocity measurements using independent spectroscopic measurements. Since the detection and validation of this Doppler beaming effect, it has been used in tens of studies to detect and characterize binary star systems, which are key calibrators in stellar astronomy.

Nano-JASMINE: Simulation of Data Outputs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kobayashi, Y.; Yano, T.; Hatsutori, Y.; Gouda, N.; Murooka, J.; Niwa, Y.; Yamada, Y.

We simulated the data outputs of the first Japanese astrometry satellite Nano-JASMINE, which is scheduled to be launched by the Cyclone-4 rocket in August 2011. The simulations were carried out using existing stellar catalogues such as the Hipparcos catalogue, the Tycho catalogue, and the Guide Star catalogue version 2.3. Several statics are shown such as the number of stars those will be measured distances using annual aberration observations. The method for determining the initial direction of the satellite's spin axis has also been discussed. In this case, the frequency of bright stars observed by the satellite is an important factor.

Design of pre-optics for laser guide star wavefront sensor for the ELT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muslimov, Eduard; Dohlen, Kjetil; Neichel, Benoit; Hugot, Emmanuel

2017-12-01

In the present paper, we consider the optical design of a zoom system for the active refocusing in laser guide star wavefront sensors. The system is designed according to the specifications coming from the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT)-HARMONI instrument, the first-light, integral field spectrograph for the European (E)-ELT. The system must provide a refocusing of the laser guide as a function of telescope pointing and large decentring of the incoming beam. The system considers four moving lens groups, each of them being a doublet with one aspherical surface. The advantages and shortcomings of such a solution in terms of the component displacements and complexity of the surfaces are described in detail. It is shown that the system can provide the median value of the residual wavefront error of 13.8-94.3 nm and the maximum value <206 nm, while the exit pupil distortion is 0.26-0.36% for each of the telescope pointing directions.

The Universal Book of Astronomy: From the Andromeda Galaxy to the Zone of Avoidance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Darling, David

2003-10-01

The ultimate guide to the final frontier This alphabetical tour of the universe provides all the history, science, and up-to-the-minute facts needed to explore the skies with authority. Packed with more than 3,000 entries that cover everything from major observatories and space telescopes to biographies of astronomers throughout the ages, it showcases an extraordinary array of newfound wonders, including microquasars, brown dwarfs, and dark energy, as well as a host of individual comets, asteroids, moons, planets, stars, nebulas, and galaxies. Featuring nearly 200 illustrations and eight pages of color photographs, this comprehensive guide provides easy lookup of topics and offers more in-depth information than can be found in existing star guides or astronomy dictionaries. It's an ideal resource for the amateur astronomer or anyone with an interest in the mysteries of the cosmos. David Darling, PhD (Brainerd, MN), is the author of The Complete Book of Spaceflight (0-471-05649-9) and Equations of Eternity, a New York Times Notable Book.

Multimodal audio guide for museums and exhibitions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gebbensleben, Sandra; Dittmann, Jana; Vielhauer, Claus

2006-02-01

In our paper we introduce a new Audio Guide concept for exploring buildings, realms and exhibitions. Actual proposed solutions work in most cases with pre-defined devices, which users have to buy or borrow. These systems often go along with complex technical installations and require a great degree of user training for device handling. Furthermore, the activation of audio commentary related to the exhibition objects is typically based on additional components like infrared, radio frequency or GPS technology. Beside the necessity of installation of specific devices for user location, these approaches often only support automatic activation with no or limited user interaction. Therefore, elaboration of alternative concepts appears worthwhile. Motivated by these aspects, we introduce a new concept based on usage of the visitor's own mobile smart phone. The advantages in our approach are twofold: firstly the Audio Guide can be used in various places without any purchase and extensive installation of additional components in or around the exhibition object. Secondly, the visitors can experience the exhibition on individual tours only by uploading the Audio Guide at a single point of entry, the Audio Guide Service Counter, and keeping it on her or his personal device. Furthermore, since the user usually is quite familiar with the interface of her or his phone and can thus interact with the application device easily. Our technical concept makes use of two general ideas for location detection and activation. Firstly, we suggest an enhanced interactive number based activation by exploiting the visual capabilities of modern smart phones and secondly we outline an active digital audio watermarking approach, where information about objects are transmitted via an analog audio channel.

Study of optimal wavefront sensing with elongated laser guide stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, S. J.; Adkins, S.; Gavel, D.; Fusco, T.; Michau, V.

2008-06-01

Over the past decade, adaptive optics (AO) has become an established method for overcoming the effects of atmospheric turbulence on both astronomical imaging and spectroscopic observations. These systems are now beginning to make extensive use of laser guide star (LGS) techniques to improve performance and provide increased sky coverage. Sodium LGS AO employs one or more lasers at 589-nm wavelength to produce an artificial guide star through excitation of sodium atoms in the mesosphere (90 km altitude). Because of its dependence on the abundance and distribution of sodium atoms in the mesosphere, this approach has its own unique set of difficulties not seen with natural stars. The sodium layer exhibits time-dependent variations in density and altitude, and since it is at a finite range, the LGS images become elongated due to the thickness of the layer and the offset between the laser projection point and the subapertures of a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWFS). Elongation causes the LGS image to be spread out resulting in a decrease in the signal-to-noise ratio which, in turn, leads to an increase in SHWFS measurement error and therefore an increased error in wavefront phase reconstruction. To address the problem of elongation, and also to provide a higher level of readout performance and reduced readout noise, a new type of charge-coupled device (CCD) is now under development for Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing called the polar coordinate CCD. In this device, discrete imaging arrays are provided in each SHWFS subaperture and the size, shape and orientation of each discrete imaging array are adjusted to optimally sample the LGS image. The device is referred to as the polar coordinate CCD because the location of each imager is defined by a polar coordinate system centred on the laser guide star projection point. This concept is especially suited to Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs) where the effect of perspective elongation is a significant factor. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of centroiders based on this CCD geometry by evaluating the centroid error variance and also the linearity issues associated with LGS image sampling and truncation. We also describe how we will extend this work to address the problems presented by the time variability of the sodium layer and how this will impact SHWFS performance in LGS AO systems.

The impact of interpretive and reductive front-of-pack labels on food choice and willingness to pay.

PubMed

Talati, Zenobia; Norman, Richard; Pettigrew, Simone; Neal, Bruce; Kelly, Bridget; Dixon, Helen; Ball, Kylie; Miller, Caroline; Shilton, Trevor

2017-12-19

This study examined how front-of-pack labels and product healthfulness affect choice and willingness to pay across a range of foods. It was hypothesized that: (i) product choice and (ii) willingness to pay would be more aligned with product healthfulness when healthfulness was expressed through the Health Star Rating, followed by the Multiple Traffic Light, then the Daily Intake Guide, and (iii) the Nutrition Facts Panel would be viewed infrequently. Adults and children aged 10+ years (n = 2069) completed an online discrete choice task involving mock food packages. A 4 food type (cookies, corn flakes, pizza, yoghurt) × 2 front-of-pack label presence (present, absent) × 3 front-of-pack label type (Daily Intake Guide, Multiple Traffic Light, Health Star Rating) × 3 price (cheap, moderate, expensive) × 3 healthfulness (less healthy, moderately healthy, healthier) design was used. A 30 s time limit was imposed for each choice. Of the three front-of-pack labels tested, the Health Star Rating produced the largest differences in choices, with 40% (95% CIs: 38%-42%) of respondents selecting the healthier variant, 33% selecting the moderately healthy variant (95% CIs: 31%-35%), and 23% (95% CIs: 21%-24%) selecting the less healthy variant of the four products included in the study. The Multiple Traffic Light led to significant differences in choices between healthier (35%, 95% CIs: 33%-37%) and less healthy products (29%, 95% CIs: 27%-31%), but not moderately healthy products (32%, 95% CIs: 30%-34%). No significant differences in choices were observed by product healthfulness when the Daily Intake Guide was present. Only the Health Star Rating resulted in a significantly greater willingness to pay for healthier versus less healthy products. The Nutrition Facts Panel was viewed for only 7% of all mock packages. Front-of-pack labels that are more interpretive, such as the Health Star Rating, can be more effective at directing consumers towards healthier choices than reductive front-of-pack labels such as the Daily Intake Guide. The study results provide policy makers with clear guidance on the types of front-of-pack labels that are most likely to achieve positive health outcomes at a population level.

The Performance of the Robo-AO Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics System at the Kitt Peak 2.1 m Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jensen-Clem, Rebecca; Duev, Dmitry A.; Riddle, Reed; Salama, Maïssa; Baranec, Christoph; Law, Nicholas M.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Ramprakash, A. N.

2018-01-01

Robo-AO is an autonomous laser guide star adaptive optics (AO) system recently commissioned at the Kitt Peak 2.1 m telescope. With the ability to observe every clear night, Robo-AO at the 2.1 m telescope is the first dedicated AO observatory. This paper presents the imaging performance of the AO system in its first 18 months of operations. For a median seeing value of 1.″44, the average Strehl ratio is 4% in the i\\prime band. After post processing, the contrast ratio under sub-arcsecond seeing for a 2≤slant i\\prime ≤slant 16 primary star is five and seven magnitudes at radial offsets of 0.″5 and 1.″0, respectively. The data processing and archiving pipelines run automatically at the end of each night. The first stage of the processing pipeline shifts and adds the rapid frame rate data using techniques optimized for different signal-to-noise ratios. The second “high-contrast” stage of the pipeline is eponymously well suited to finding faint stellar companions. Currently, a range of scientific programs, including the synthetic tracking of near-Earth asteroids, the binarity of stars in young clusters, and weather on solar system planets are being undertaken with Robo-AO.

Wireless Occupancy Sensors for Lighting Controls: An Applications Guide for Federal Facility Managers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

None

This guide provides federal facility managers with an overview of the energy savings potential of wireless lighting occupancy sensors for various room types, cost considerations, key steps to successful installation of wireless sensors, pros and cons of various technology options, light source considerations, and codes and standards.

Climate Control. Secondary School Course Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuPlantis, Ernest P.

This course guide is oriented toward developing skills in air conditioning and refrigeration installation and service. Although primarily designed as a 2-year program for high school students at the junior and senior levels, it is equally acceptable for the post high school student as an occupational training program, or as a refresher course for…

Mountain Plains Learning Experience Guide: Electrical Wiring. Course: Electrical Wiring Trim-Out.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arneson, R.; And Others

One of two individualized courses included in an electrical wiring curriculum, this course covers electrical materials installation for the trim-out stage. The course is comprised of five units: (1) Outlets, (2) Fixtures, (3) Switches, (4) Appliances, and (5) Miscellaneous. Each unit begins with a Unit Learning Experience Guide that gives…

75 FR 45172 - Withdrawal of Regulatory Guides 3.44 and 3.49

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-02

... Format and Content for the Safety Analysis Report for an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation... on the format and content of the safety analysis report that is required as part of an application to...: Nuclear Regulatory Commission. ACTION: Withdrawal of Regulatory Guide 3.44, ``Standard Format and Content...

BETTER DUCT SYSTEMS FOR HOME HEATING AND COOLING.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

ANDREWS,J.

This is a series of six guides intended to provide a working knowledge of residential heating and cooling duct systems, an understanding of the major issues concerning efficiency, comfort, health, and safety, and practical tips on installation and repair of duct systems. These guides are intended for use by contractors, system designers, advanced technicians, and other HVAC professionals. The first two guides are also intended to be accessible to the general reader.

Status of the Transneptunian Automated Occultation Survey (TAOS II)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lehner, Matthew; Wang, Shiang-Yu; Reyes-Ruiz, Mauricio; Alcock, Charles; Castro Chacón, Joel; Chen, Wen-Ping; Chu, You-Hua; Cook, Kem H.; Figueroa, Liliana; Geary, John C.; Hernandez, Benjamin; Huang, Chung-Kai; Norton, Timothy; Szentgyorgyi, Andrew; Yen, Wei-Ling; Zhang, Zhi-Wei

2017-10-01

The Transneptunian Automated Occultation Survey (TAOS II) will aim to detect occultations of stars by small (~1 km diameter) objects in the Kuiper Belt and beyond. Such events are very rare (<0.001 events per star per year) and short in duration (~200 ms), so many stars must be monitored at a high readout cadence. TAOS II will operate three 1.3 meter telescopes at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional at San Pedro Mártir in Baja California, México. With a 2.3 square degree field of view and a high speed camera comprising CMOS imagers, the survey will monitor 10,000 stars simultaneously with all three telescopes at a readout cadence of 20 Hz. Construction of the site began in the fall of 2013 and was completed this summer. Telescope installation began in August 2017. This poster will provide an update on the status of the survey development and the schedule leading to the beginning of survey operations.

Hybrid Architecture Active Wavefront Sensing and Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feinberg, Lee; Dean, Bruce; Hyde, Tupper

2010-01-01

A method was developed for performing relatively high-speed wavefront sensing and control to overcome thermal instabilities in a segmented primary mirror telescope [e.g., James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at L2], by using the onboard fine guidance sensor (FGS) to minimize expense and complexity. This FGS performs centroiding on a bright star to feed the information to the pointing and control system. The proposed concept is to beam split the image of the guide star (or use a single defocused guide star image) to perform wavefront sensing using phase retrieval techniques. Using the fine guidance sensor star image for guiding and fine phasing eliminates the need for other, more complex ways of achieving very accurate sensing and control that is needed for UV-optical applications. The phase retrieval occurs nearly constantly, so passive thermal stability over fourteen days is not required. Using the FGS as the sensor, one can feed segment update information to actuators on the primary mirror that can update the primary mirror segment fine phasing with this frequency. Because the thermal time constants of the primary mirror are very slow compared to this duration, the mirror will appear extremely stable during observations (to the level of accuracy of the sensing and control). The sensing can use the same phase retrieval techniques as the JWST by employing an additional beam splitter, and having each channel go through a weak lens (one positive and one negative). The channels can use common or separate detectors. Phase retrieval can be performed onboard. The actuation scheme would include a coarse stage able to achieve initial alignment of several millimeters of range (similar to JWST and can use a JWST heritage sensing approach in the science camera) and a fine stage capable of continual updates.

A Cluster Of Activities On Coma From The Hubble Space Telescope, StarDate, And McDonald Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hemenway, Mary Kay; Jogee, S.; Fricke, K.; Preston, S.

2011-01-01

With a goal of providing a vast audience of students, teachers, the general public, and Spanish-speakers with activities to learn about research on the Coma cluster of galaxies based on the HST ACS Treasury survey of Coma, McDonald Observatory used a many-faceted approach. Since this research offered an unprecedented legacy dataset, part of the challenge was to convey the importance of this project to a diverse audience. The methodology was to create different products for different (overlapping) audiences. Five radio programs were produced in English and Spanish for distribution on over 500 radio stations in the US and Mexico with a listening audience of over 2 million; in addition to the radio listeners, there were over 13,000 downloads of the English scripts and almost 6000 of the Spanish. Images were prepared for use in the StarDate Online Astronomy Picture of the Week, for ViewSpace (used in museums), and for the StarDate/Universo Teacher Guide. A high-school level activity on the Coma Cluster was prepared and distributed both on-line and in an upgraded printed version of the StarDate/Universo Teacher Guide. This guide has been distributed to over 1700 teachers nationally. A YouTube video about careers and research in astronomy using the Coma cluster as an example was produced. Just as the activities were varied, so were the evaluation methods. This material is based upon work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant/Contract/Agreement No. HST-EO-10861.35-A issued through the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.

Installation Strategic Planning Guidebook

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-01

Installation natural resource concerns (for example, wetlands , number of endangered species, water use restrictions, encroachment on training lands...Koehler Publishing, 1994 7. Strategy Safari – A Guided Tour Through the Wilds of Strategic Management by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, and...T. (1987). NY: Knopf 36. Shaping Strategic Planning: Frogs, Dragons, Bees and Turkey Tails. Pfeiffer, J. W., Goodstein, L. D. & Nolan, T. M. (1989

LANGUAGE LABORATORY SPECIFICATIONS. A PROCUREMENT GUIDE FOR THE PURCHASE OF LANGUAGE LABORATORY INSTALLATIONS IN WISCONSIN, NDEA, TITLE III.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

GRITTNER, FRANK; PAVLAT, RUSSELL

THE KNOWLEDGE ACCUMULATED FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF INSTALLING MANY LANGUAGE LABORATORIES UNDER THE TITLE III, NDEA PROGRAM FORMS THE BASIS FOR THE GUIDELINES PRESENTED IN THIS BULLETIN. THE DOCUMENT INCLUDES A SUMMARY OF CONDITIONS DESIRABLE PRIOR TO THE PURCHASE OF A LABORATORY, SAMPLE SPECIFICATIONS FOR EACH COMPONENT OF THE LAB, SPECIFICATIONS…

Status and new operation modes of the versatile VLT/NaCo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Girard, Julien H. V.; Kasper, Markus; Quanz, Sascha P.; Kenworthy, Matthew A.; Rengaswamy, Sridharan; Schödel, Rainer; Gallenne, Alexandre; Gillessen, Stefan; Huerta, Nicolas; Kervella, Pierre; Kornweibel, Nick; Lenzen, Rainer; Mérand, Antoine; Montagnier, Guillaume; O'Neal, Jared; Zins, Gérard

2010-07-01

This paper aims at giving an update on the most versatile Adaptive Optics fed instrument to date, the well known and successful NACO*. Although NACO is only scheduled for about two more years† at the Very Large Telescope (VLT), it keeps on evolving with additional operation modes bringing original astronomical results. The high contrast imaging community uses it creatively as a test-bench for SPHERE‡ and other second generation planet imagers. A new visible wavefront sensor (WFS) optimized for Laser Guide Star (LGS) operations has been installed and tested, the cube mode is more and more required for frame selection on bright sources, a seeing enhancer mode (no tip/tilt correction) is now offered to provide full sky coverage and welcome all kind of extragalactic applications, etc. The Instrument Operations Team (IOT) and Paranal engineers are currently working hard at maintaining the instrument overall performances but also at improving them and offering new capabilities, providing the community with a well tuned and original instrument for the remaining time it is being used. The present contribution delivers a non-exhaustive overview of the new modes and experiments that have been carried out in the past months.

Testing and integrating the laser system of ARGOS: the ground layer adaptive optics for LBT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loose, C.; Rabien, S.; Barl, L.; Borelli, J.; Deysenroth, M.; Gaessler, W.; Gemperlein, H.; Honsberg, M.; Kulas, M.; Lederer, R.; Raab, W.; Rahmer, G.; Ziegleder, J.

2012-07-01

The Laser Guide Star facility ARGOS will provide Ground Layer Adaptive Optics to the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). The system operates three pulsed laser beacons above each of the two primary mirrors, which are Rayleigh scattered in 12km height. This enables correction over a wide field of view, using the adaptive secondary mirror of the LBT. The ARGOS laser system is designed around commercially available, pulsed Nd:YAG lasers working at 532 nm. In preparation for a successful commissioning, it is important to ascertain that the specifications are met for every component of the laser system. The testing of assembled, optical subsystems is likewise necessary. In particular it is required to confirm a high output power, beam quality and pulse stability of the beacons. In a second step, the integrated laser system along with its electronic cabinets are installed on a telescope simulator. This unit is capable of carrying the whole assembly and can be tilted to imitate working conditions at the LBT. It allows alignment and functionality testing of the entire system, ensuring that flexure compensation and system diagnosis work properly in different orientations.

Optics: Light, Color, and Their Uses. An Educator's Guide with Activities in Science and Mathematics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Huntsville, AL. George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.

This educator's guide from discusses optics, light, color and their uses. Activities include: (1) "Reflection of Light with a Plane (Flat) Mirror--Trace a Star"; (2) "Reflection of Light with Two Plane Mirrors--Double Mirrors Placed at a 90-Degree Angle"; (3) "Reflection of Light with Two Plane Mirrors--Double Mirrors Placed at a Number of…

Resource Handbook--Space Beyond the Earth. A Supplement to Basic Curriculum Guide--Science, Grades K-6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Starr, John W., 3rd., Ed.

GRADES OR AGES: Grades K-6. SUBJECT MATTER: Science; space. ORGANIZATION AND PHYSICAL APPEARANCE: The guide is divided into four units: 1) the sun, earth, and moon; 2) stars and planets; 3) exploring space; 4) man's existence in space. Each unit includes initiatory and developmental activities. There are also sections on evaluation, vocabulary,…

The mass-ratio and eccentricity distributions of barium and S stars, and red giants in open clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van der Swaelmen, M.; Boffin, H. M. J.; Jorissen, A.; Van Eck, S.

2017-01-01

Context. A complete set of orbital parameters for barium stars, including the longest orbits, has recently been obtained thanks to a radial-velocity monitoring with the HERMES spectrograph installed on the Flemish Mercator telescope. Barium stars are supposed to belong to post-mass-transfer systems. Aims: In order to identify diagnostics distinguishing between pre- and post-mass-transfer systems, the properties of barium stars (more precisely their mass-function distribution and their period-eccentricity (P-e) diagram) are compared to those of binary red giants in open clusters. As a side product, we aim to identify possible post-mass-transfer systems among the cluster giants from the presence of s-process overabundances. We investigate the relation between the s-process enrichment, the location in the (P-e) diagram, and the cluster metallicity and turn-off mass. Methods: To invert the mass-function distribution and derive the mass-ratio distribution, we used the method pioneered by Boffin et al. (1992) that relies on a Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm. The derivation of s-process abundances in the open-cluster giants was performed through spectral synthesis with MARCS model atmospheres. Results: A fraction of 22% of post-mass-transfer systems is found among the cluster binary giants (with companion masses between 0.58 and 0.87 M⊙, typical for white dwarfs), and these systems occupy a wider area than barium stars in the (P-e) diagram. Barium stars have on average lower eccentricities at a given orbital period. When the sample of binary giant stars in clusters is restricted to the subsample of systems occupying the same locus as the barium stars in the (P-e) diagram, and with a mass function compatible with a WD companion, 33% (=4/12) show a chemical signature of mass transfer in the form of s-process overabundances (from rather moderate - about 0.3 dex - to more extreme - about 1 dex). The only strong barium star in our sample is found in the cluster with the lowest metallicity in the sample (I.e. star 173 in NGC 2420, with [Fe/H] = -0.26), whereas the barium stars with mild s-process abundance anomalies (from 0.25 to 0.6 dex) are found in the clusters with slightly subsolar metallicities. Our finding confirms the classical prediction that the s-process nucleosynthesis is more efficient at low metallicities, since the s-process overabundance is not clearly correlated with the cluster turn-off (TO) mass; such a correlation would instead hint at the importance of the dilution factor. We also find a mild barium star in NGC 2335, a cluster with a large TO mass of 4.3 M⊙, which implies that asymptotic giant branch stars that massive still operate the s-process and the third dredge-up. Based on observations made with the Mercator Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma by the Flemish Community, at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, and on observations made with the HARPS spectrograph installed on the 3.6 m telescope at the European Southern Observatory.

Design challenges and coordination issues in hotel projects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saunders, Melvin L., IV; Marsh, David

2002-11-01

The design of a Five Star hotel facility encompasses a myriad of design dilemmas. On the same note, the design of a One Star or Two Star hotel has many dilemmas of its own. The ability of an acoustical consultant, as an integral part of the design team, to recognize the differences between these types of projects can be the difference between a successful hotel project and miserable failure. Different quality hotels require different levels of design criteria. Proper coordination and timing between trades and installations, such as loudspeakers, ceiling coffers, chandeliers, sprinkler heads, and ductwork, is also very important for the success of the overall project. This paper will discuss techniques and methods to produce successful hotel projects, as well as various noise sources throughout these spaces. It will also highlight a number of tips learned through many hotel design experiences.

KSC-2012-3203

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-06-05

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – An Orbital Sciences’ Pegasus rocket and NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, are installed under Orbital’s L-1011 carrier aircraft awaiting departure from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pegasus, mated to its NuSTAR payload, will be launched from the carrier aircraft 117 nautical miles south of Kwajalein at latitude 6.75 degrees north of the equator. The high-energy X-ray telescope will conduct a census of black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. Launch is scheduled for June 13. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

Why Aren’t Lightsabers Real Yet? Get the Lowdown from a Laser Physicist

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hunsberger, Maren; Liao, Zhi

The release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" begs the obvious question: Why aren't lightsabers real yet? LLNL science communicator Maren Hunsberger gets the lowdown from laser physicist Zhi Liao in this first installment of "Inside the Lab," a new YouTube series exploring crazy-cool science questions.

FAQ | Efficient Windows Collaborative

Science.gov Websites

climate and your pocketbook. Sometimes a homeowner feels more comfortable with a particular contractor contractor to describe the installation process. Make sure your contractor knows as much about ENERGY STAR , you will have to work with the builder or a contractor to correct the problem. If the leak is between

Quiet Clean Short-haul Experimental Engine (QCSEE) main reduction gears test program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Misel, O. W.

1977-01-01

Sets of under the wing (UTW) engine reduction gears and sets of over the wing (OTW) engine reduction gears were fabricated for rig testing and subsequent installation in engines. The UTW engine reduction gears which have a ratio of 2.465:1 and a design rating of 9712 kW at 3157 rpm fan speed were operated at up to 105% speed at 60% torque and 100% speed at 125% torque. The OTW engine reduction gears which have a ratio of 2.062:1 and a design rating of 12,615 kW at 3861 rpm fan speed were operated at up to 95% speed at 50% torque and 80% speed at 109% torque. Satisfactory operation was demonstrated at powers up to 12,172 kW, mechanical efficiency up to 99.1% UTW, and a maximum gear pitch line velocity of 112 m/s (22,300 fpm) with a corresponding star gear spherical roller bearing DN of 850,00 OTW. Oil and star gear bearing temperatures, oil churning, heat rejection, and vibratory characteristics were acceptable for engine installation.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kirby, M.J.; Kramer, S.R.; Pittard, G.T.

Jason Consultants International, Inc., under the sponsorship of the Gas Research Institute (GRI), has developed guidelines, procedures and software, which are described in this paper, for the installation of polyethylene gas pipe using guided horizontal drilling. Jason was aided in this development by two key subcontractors; Maurer Engineering who wrote the software and NICOR Technologies who reviewed the software and guidelines from a utility perspective. This program resulted in the development of commerically viable software for utilities, contractors, engineering firms, and others involved with the installation of pipes using guided horizontal drilling. The software is an interactive design tool thatmore » allows the user to enter ground elevation data, alignment information and pipe data. The software aides the engineer in designing a drill path and provides plan and profile views along with tabular data for pipe depth and surface profile. Finally, the software calculates installation loads and pipe stresses, compares these values against pipe manufacturer`s recommendations, and provides this information graphically and in tabular form. 5 refs., 18 figs., 2 tabs.« less

A Toolbox for Exoplanet Exploration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jensen-Clem, Rebecca Marie

2017-05-01

In this thesis, I develop a new suite of tools to address two questions in exoplanet science: how common are Earth-mass planets in the habitable zones of Solar-type stars, and can we detect signs of life on other worlds? Answering the first question requires a method for detecting Earth-Sun analogs. Currently, the radial velocity (RV) method of exoplanet detection is one of the most successful tools for probing inner planetary systems. However, degeneracy between a spectrometer's wavelength calibration and the astrophysical RV shift has limited the sensitivity of today's instruments. In my thesis, I address a method for breaking this degeneracy: by combining a traditional spectrometer design with a dynamic interferometer, a fringe pattern is generated at the image plane that is highly sensitive to changes in the radial velocity of the target star. I augmented previous theoretical studies of the method, creating an end-to-end simulation to 1) introduce and recover wavelength calibration errors, and 2) investigate the effects of interferometer position errors on the RV precision. My simulation showed that using this kind of interferometric system, a 5-m class telescope could detect an Earth-Sun analog. Addressing the occurrence rate of Earth twins also requires an understanding of planet formation in multiple star systems, which encompass half of all Solar-type stars. Gravitational interactions between binary components separated by 10-100 astronomical units are predicted to truncate the outer edges of their respective disks, possibly reducing the disks' lifetimes. Consequently, the pool of material and the amount of time available for planet formation may be smaller than in single star systems. The stars' rotational periods provide a fossil record of these events: star-disk magnetic interactions initially prevent a contracting pre-main sequence star from spinning up, and hence a star with a shorter-lived disk is expected to be spinning more quickly when it reaches the zero age main sequence. In order to conduct a large-scale multiplicity survey to investigate the relationship between stellar rotation and binary system properties (e.g. their separations and mass ratios), I contributed to the commissioning of Robo-AO, a robotic laser guide star adaptive optics system, at the Kitt Peak 2.1-m. After the instrument's installation, I wrote a data pipeline to optimize the system's sensitivity to close stellar companions via reference star differential imaging. I then characterized Robo-AO's performance during its first year of operations. Finally, I used Robo-AO to search for binaries among the 759 stars in the Pleiades with rotational periods measured using the photometric data of the re-purposed Kepler telescope, K2. Detecting signs of life on other worlds will require detailed characterization of rocky exoplanet atmospheres. Polarimetry has long been proposed as a means of probing these atmospheres, but current instruments lack the sensitivity to detect the starlight reflected and polarized by such small, close-in planets. However, the latest generation of high contrast imaging instruments (e.g. GPI and SPHERE) may be able to detect the polarization of thermal emission by young gas giants due to scattering by aerosols in their atmospheres. Observational constraints on the details of clouds physics imposed by polarized emission will improve our understanding of the planets' compositions, and hence their formation histories. For the case of the brown dwarf HD19467 B orbiting a nearby Sun-like star, I demonstrated that the Gemini Planet Imager can detect linear polarizations on the order predicted for these cloudy exoplanets. My current pilot programs can produce the first detections of polarized exoplanet emission, while also building expertise for reflected starlight polarimetry with future observatories.

Research of centroiding algorithms for extended and elongated spot of sodium laser guide star

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shao, Yayun; Zhang, Yudong; Wei, Kai

2016-10-01

Laser guide stars (LGSs) increase the sky coverage of astronomical adaptive optics systems. But spot array obtained by Shack-Hartmann wave front sensors (WFSs) turns extended and elongated, due to the thickness and size limitation of sodium LGS, which affects the accuracy of the wave front reconstruction algorithm. In this paper, we compared three different centroiding algorithms , the Center-of-Gravity (CoG), weighted CoG (WCoG) and Intensity Weighted Centroid (IWC), as well as those accuracies for various extended and elongated spots. In addition, we compared the reconstructed image data from those three algorithms with theoretical results, and proved that WCoG and IWC are the best wave front reconstruction algorithms for extended and elongated spot among all the algorithms.

Status of the GTC adaptive optics: integration in laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reyes García-Talavera, M.; Béjar, V. J. S.; López, J. C.; López, R. L.; Martín, C.; Martín, Y.; Montilla, I.; Núñez, M.; Puga, M.; Rodríguez, L. F.; Tenegi, F.; Tubío, O.; Bello, D.; Cavaller, L.; Prieto, G.; Rosado, M.

2016-07-01

Since the beginning of the development of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), an Adaptive Optics (AO) system was considered necessary to exploit the full diffraction-limited potential of the telescope. The GTC AO system designed during the last years is based on a single deformable mirror conjugated to the telescope pupil, and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor with 20 x 20 subapertures, using an OCAM2 camera. The GTCAO system will provide a corrected beam with a Strehl Ratio (SR) of 0.65 in K-band with bright natural guide stars. Most of the subsystems have been manufactured and delivered. The upgrade for the operation with a Laser Guide Star (LGS) system has been recently approved. The present status of the GTCAO system, currently in its laboratory integration phase, is summarized in this paper.

Concept for polychromatic laser guide stars: one-photon excitation of the 4P3/2 level of a sodium atom.

PubMed

Pique, Jean-Paul; Moldovan, Ioana Cristina; Fesquet, Vincent

2006-11-01

One challenge for polychromatic laser guide stars is to create a sufficiently intense source in the UV. The flux required for the measurement of differential tip-tilt is the main issue that we address. We describe a model that has been validated using on-sky data. We present a method that excites the 4P3/2 sodium level using a one-photon excitation at 330 nm. It is more efficient than the two-photon excitation previously suggested since its power slope flux is 3 x 10(4) photons/s/m2/W instead of 1.3 x 10(3) photons/s/m2/W. This method is very promising both in terms of flux and system simplicity.

The Laser Guide Star System for Adaptive Optics at Subaru Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayano, Y.; Saito, Y.; Ito, M.; Saito, N.; Akagawa, K.; Takazawa, A.; Ito, M.; Wada, S.; Takami, H.; Iye, M.

We report on the current status of developing the new laser guide star (LGS) system for the Subaru adaptive optics (AO) system. We have three major subsystems: the laser unit, the relay optical fiber and the laser launching telescope. A 4W-class all-solid-state 589nm laser has been developed as a light source for sodium laser guide star. We use two mode-locked Nd:YAG lasers operated at the wavelength of 1064nm and 1319nm to generate sum-frequency conversion into 589nm. The side-LD pumped configuration is used for the mode-locked Nd:YAG lasers. We have carefully considered the thermal lens effect in the cavity to achieve a high beam quality with TEM00; M2 = 1.06. The mode-locked frequency is selected at 143 MHz. We obtained the output powers of 16.5 W and 5.0 W at 1064nm and 1319 nm. Sum frequency generated by mixing two synchronized Nd:YAG mode-locked pulsed beams is precisely tuned to the sodium D2 line by thermal control of the etalon in the 1064nm Nd:YAG laser by observing the maximum fluorescence intensity of heated sodium vapor cell. The maximum output power at 589.159 nm reaches to 4.6 W using a PPMgOSLT crystal as a nonlinear optical crystal. And the output power can be maintained within a stability of +/- 1.2% for more than 3 days without optical damage. We developed a single-mode photonic crystal fiber (PCF) to relay the laser beam from laser clean room, in which the laser unit is located on the Nasmyth platform, to the laser launching telescope mounted behind the secondary mirror of Subaru Telescope. The photonic crystal fiber has solid pure silica core with the mode field diameter of 14 micron, which is relatively larger than that of the conventional step-index type single mode fiber. The length of the PCF is 35m and transmission loss due to the pure silica is 10dB/km at 589nm, which means PCF transmits 92% of the laser beam. We have preliminary achieved 75% throughput in total. Small mode-locked pulse width in time allows us to transmit the high-power laser beam with no suffer from the non-linear scatter effect, i.e. stimulated Brillouin scatter, in the PCF. The laser launching telescope (LLT) has an output clear aperture as 50 cm. It is classical Cassegrain type optical configuration with tertiary mirror to insert the laser beam from the side. The wavefront error is designed to be 60 to 70nm. The LLT is a copy product what European Southern Observatory has been designed for the laser guide star system at Very Large Telescope. We succeeded to launch the laser beam to the sky on October 12, 2006. After several tests on the sky, we succeeded to get an image of the laser guide star with the size of more than 10 arc second. The larger size of the laser guide star is caused by the large optical aberration on the primary mirror of LLT due to the heat stress generated at the trigonal support points. We are making a plan to repair this problem during June and the second laser launching test will start around this summer.

Astrometry of the omega Centauri Hubble Space Telescope Calibration Field

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mighell, Kenneth J.

2000-01-01

Astrometry, on the International Celestial Reference Frame (epoch J2000.0), is presented for the Walker (1994, PASP, 106, 828) stars in the omega Centauri (=NGC 5139=C 1323-1472) Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field/Planetary Camera (WF/PC) calibration field of Harris et al. (1993, AJ, 105, 1196). Harris et al. stars were first identified on a WFPC2 observation of the omega Cen HST calibration field. Relative astrometry of the Walker stars in this field was then obtained using Walker's CCD positions and astrometry derived using the STSDAS METRIC task on the positions of the Harris et al. stars on the WFPC2 observation. Finally, the relative astrometry, which was based on the HST Guide Star Catalog, is placed on the International Celestial Reference Frame with astrometry from the USNO-A2.0 catalog. An ASCII text version of the astrometric data of the Walker stars in the omega Cen HST calibration field is available electronically in the online version of the article.

Chico High School Students' Astrometric Observations of the Visual Double Star STF 1657

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahiligwo, Jonelle; Bergamini, Clara; Berglund, Kallan; Bhardwaj, Mohit; Chelson, Spud; Costa, Amanda; Epis, Ashley; Grant, Azure; Osteen, Courtney; Reiner, Skyla; Rose, Adam; Schmidt, Emily; Sears, Forest; Sullivan-Hames, Maddie; Johnson, Jolyon

2012-01-01

In the spring of 2011, Chico Senior High School students participated in an astronomy seminar at the Gateway Science Museum, University of California, Chico. The observers used a Celestron NexStar 6 SE telescope and a Celestron MicroGuide eyepiece to determine the separation and position angle of the visual double star STF 1657. Observations were made in approximately one hour on the evening of May 1, 2011. The observers determined that the separation of STF 1657 was 22.1" and the position angle was 273.4&°. Seminar members then used the spectral type, parallax, and proper motion vectors of the two stars to determine if they are a line-of-sight optical pair or physically bound by gravity. Due to large errors in the parallax and the proper motion vector for the secondary star, the results were inconclusive. Through this experience, the students learned the skills needed to observe, analyze, and report on double stars.

Atypical Mg-poor Milky Way Field Stars with Globular Cluster Second-generation-like Chemical Patterns

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fernández-Trincado, J. G.; Geisler, D.; Tang, B.

We report the peculiar chemical abundance patterns of 11 atypical Milky Way (MW) field red giant stars observed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). These atypical giants exhibit strong Al and N enhancements accompanied by C and Mg depletions, strikingly similar to those observed in the so-called second-generation (SG) stars of globular clusters (GCs). Remarkably, we find low Mg abundances ([Mg/Fe] < 0.0) together with strong Al and N overabundances in the majority (5/7) of the metal-rich ([Fe/H] ≳ −1.0) sample stars, which is at odds with actual observations of SG stars in Galactic GCs of similarmore » metallicities. This chemical pattern is unique and unprecedented among MW stars, posing urgent questions about its origin. These atypical stars could be former SG stars of dissolved GCs formed with intrinsically lower abundances of Mg and enriched Al (subsequently self-polluted by massive AGB stars) or the result of exotic binary systems. We speculate that the stars Mg-deficiency as well as the orbital properties suggest that they could have an extragalactic origin. This discovery should guide future dedicated spectroscopic searches of atypical stellar chemical patterns in our Galaxy, a fundamental step forward to understanding the Galactic formation and evolution.« less

Atypical Mg-poor Milky Way Field Stars with Globular Cluster Second-generation-like Chemical Patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernández-Trincado, J. G.; Zamora, O.; García-Hernández, D. A.; Souto, Diogo; Dell'Agli, F.; Schiavon, R. P.; Geisler, D.; Tang, B.; Villanova, S.; Hasselquist, Sten; Mennickent, R. E.; Cunha, Katia; Shetrone, M.; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Vieira, K.; Zasowski, G.; Sobeck, J.; Hayes, C. R.; Majewski, S. R.; Placco, V. M.; Beers, T. C.; Schleicher, D. R. G.; Robin, A. C.; Mészáros, Sz.; Masseron, T.; García Pérez, Ana E.; Anders, F.; Meza, A.; Alves-Brito, A.; Carrera, R.; Minniti, D.; Lane, R. R.; Fernández-Alvar, E.; Moreno, E.; Pichardo, B.; Pérez-Villegas, A.; Schultheis, M.; Roman-Lopes, A.; Fuentes, C. E.; Nitschelm, C.; Harding, P.; Bizyaev, D.; Pan, K.; Oravetz, D.; Simmons, A.; Ivans, Inese I.; Blanco-Cuaresma, S.; Hernández, J.; Alonso-García, J.; Valenzuela, O.; Chanamé, J.

2017-09-01

We report the peculiar chemical abundance patterns of 11 atypical Milky Way (MW) field red giant stars observed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE). These atypical giants exhibit strong Al and N enhancements accompanied by C and Mg depletions, strikingly similar to those observed in the so-called second-generation (SG) stars of globular clusters (GCs). Remarkably, we find low Mg abundances ([Mg/Fe] < 0.0) together with strong Al and N overabundances in the majority (5/7) of the metal-rich ([Fe/H] ≳ -1.0) sample stars, which is at odds with actual observations of SG stars in Galactic GCs of similar metallicities. This chemical pattern is unique and unprecedented among MW stars, posing urgent questions about its origin. These atypical stars could be former SG stars of dissolved GCs formed with intrinsically lower abundances of Mg and enriched Al (subsequently self-polluted by massive AGB stars) or the result of exotic binary systems. We speculate that the stars Mg-deficiency as well as the orbital properties suggest that they could have an extragalactic origin. This discovery should guide future dedicated spectroscopic searches of atypical stellar chemical patterns in our Galaxy, a fundamental step forward to understanding the Galactic formation and evolution.

Bodily Explorations in Space: Social Experience of a Multimodal Art Installation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacucci, Giulio; Spagnolli, Anna; Chalambalakis, Alessandro; Morrison, Ann; Liikkanen, Lassi; Roveda, Stefano; Bertoncini, Massimo

We contribute with an extensive field study of a public interactive art installation that applies multimodal interface technologies. The installation is part of a Theater production on Galileo Galilei and includes: projected galaxies that are generated and move according to motion of visitors changing colour depending on their voices; projected stars that configure themselves around shadows of visitors. In the study we employ emotion scales (PANAS), qualitative analysis of questionnaire answers and video-recordings. PANAS rates indicate dominantly positive feelings, further described in the subjective verbalizations as gravitating around interest, ludic pleasure and transport. Through the video analysis, we identified three phases in the interaction with the artwork (circumspection, testing, play) and two pervasive features of these phases (experience sharing and imitation), which were also found in the verbalizations. Both video and verbalisations suggest that visitor’s experience and ludic pleasure are rooted in the embodied, performative interaction with the installation, and is negotiated with the other visitors.

Assessment of visiting activities for young children using the UNAWE Evaluation Guide

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomita, Akihiko

2015-08-01

When the target is young children and the activity type is play, the assessment of the activity is not easy. The table of domains of active learning shown in the EU Universe Awareness Programme Evaluation Guide is useful for the assessment; the Guide shows the four domains; motivation, scientific skills, universe knowledge, and intercultural attitudes, and many items of objectives in each domains. The Guide can be a basic format and the items can be modified so as to fit each activity. Taking my activity as an example, I will present an assessment using the Guide. The activity I will present is "Uchu no O-hanashi," a visiting activity which includeds slide show, story telling, and enjoying pictures on large sheets for children at nursery, kindergarten, preschool and other sites. In order to obtain the data, I have recorded the voice of children. The analysis method is a kind of qualitative one. I picked up "motivation" and "scientific skills" words from the record when they muttered about and asked each other what they felt, what they found, and what they got excited about. Among the items in the "scientific skills domain," looking at carefully, asking, exchanging opinions, interpreting or trying to interpret, and trying were frequently appeared. Other skills such as devising and confirming were not frequently appeared but they would sometimes appear later at home or at school after the activity. I also picked up the words of children obtaining scientific way of view and attitude through the activity. One example is "It seems that stars float in the sky and do not move. Do they really set like the Sun, our nearest star? I never saw stars set!" A boy was trying to make a new framework for his understanding. This kind of thinking will enrich his or her future "universe knowledge" and "intercultural attitudes."

GEAS Spectroscopy Tools for Authentic Research Investigations in the Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rector, Travis A.; Vogt, Nicole P.

2018-06-01

Spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools that astronomers use to study the universe. However relatively few resources are available that enable undergraduates to explore astronomical spectra interactively. We present web-based applications which guide students through the analysis of real spectra of stars, galaxies, and quasars. The tools are written in HTML5 and function in all modern web browsers on computers and tablets. No software needs to be installed nor do any datasets need to be downloaded, enabling students to use the tools in or outside of class (e.g., for online classes).Approachable GUIs allow students to analyze spectra in the same manner as professional astronomers. The stellar spectroscopy tool can fit a continuum with a blackbody and identify spectral features, as well as fit line profiles and determine equivalent widths. The galaxy and AGN tools can also measure redshifts and calcium break strengths. The tools provide access to an archive of hundreds of spectra obtained with the optical telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory. It is also possible to load your own spectra or to query the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) database.We have also developed curricula to investigate these topics: spectral classification, variable stars, redshift, and AGN classification. We will present the functionality of the tools and describe the associated curriculum. The tools are part of the General Education Astronomy Source (GEAS) project based at New Mexico State University, with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF, AST-0349155) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, NNX09AV36G). Curriculum development was supported by the NSF (DUE-0618849 and DUE-0920293).

Optical System Error Analysis and Calibration Method of High-Accuracy Star Trackers

PubMed Central

Sun, Ting; Xing, Fei; You, Zheng

2013-01-01

The star tracker is a high-accuracy attitude measurement device widely used in spacecraft. Its performance depends largely on the precision of the optical system parameters. Therefore, the analysis of the optical system parameter errors and a precise calibration model are crucial to the accuracy of the star tracker. Research in this field is relatively lacking a systematic and universal analysis up to now. This paper proposes in detail an approach for the synthetic error analysis of the star tracker, without the complicated theoretical derivation. This approach can determine the error propagation relationship of the star tracker, and can build intuitively and systematically an error model. The analysis results can be used as a foundation and a guide for the optical design, calibration, and compensation of the star tracker. A calibration experiment is designed and conducted. Excellent calibration results are achieved based on the calibration model. To summarize, the error analysis approach and the calibration method are proved to be adequate and precise, and could provide an important guarantee for the design, manufacture, and measurement of high-accuracy star trackers. PMID:23567527

Landscaping and Turf Management. Instructor Guide, Volume 22, Number 2, and Student Reference, Volume 22, Number 3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodekohr, Sherie; Waeckerle, Debi

This instructor guide and the corresponding student reference contain 12 units, which cover the following topics: (1) opportunities in the landscaping and turfgrass industries; (2) how plants grow; (3) plant identification; (4) hand and power tools (identification and maintenance); (5) pesticides; (6) installation and maintenance of trees and…

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING FOR MODERN SCHOOLS, A GUIDE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE USE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

REIDA, GEORGE W.; AND OTHERS

THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOOD VISUAL ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMICALLY FEASIBLE LIGHTING INSTALLATIONS IN SCHOOLS IS DISCUSSED IN THIS GUIDE. EIGHTY PERCENT OF ALL SCHOOL LEARNING IS GAINED THROUGH THE EYES AS ESTIMATED BY THE U.S. OFFICE OF EDUCATION. GOOD SCHOOL LIGHTING IS COMFORTABLE, GLAREFREE AND ADEQUATE FOR THE VISUAL TASK. EYE STRAIN AND UNNECESSARY…

Diagnostic guide for evaluating surface distortions in veneered furniture and cabinetry

Treesearch

Alfred W. Christiansen; Mark Knaebe

2004-01-01

Manufacturers and installers of wood-veneered furniture and cabinetry sometimes find that their products eventually develop surface distortions, characterized by either buckling or cracking of the surface finish. The veneer itself sometimes buckles or cracks. Most surface distortions are caused by moisture changes in the product. This guide is a diagnostic tool for...

Status of the VEGA Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamanin, D. V.; Alexandrov, A. A.; Alexandrova, I. A.; Kondtatyev, N. A.; Kuznetsova, E. A.; Shvetsov, V. N.; Strekalovsky, A. O.; Strekalovsky, O. V.; Zhuchko, V. E.; Pyatkov, Yu. V.; Jacobs, N.; Malaza, V.

2015-06-01

Motivation and status of the VEGA (Velocity-Energy Guide based Array) project is presented. One armed fission fragments spectrometer with an electrostatic guide system is proposed for installation at the vertical experimental channel of the IBR-2 reactor. Scientific program aimed at investigation of new multi-body decays of actinides, shapeisomeric states in fission fragments and fission modes is reported.

Identification and characterization of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs using Virtual Observatory tools.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aberasturi, M.; Solano, E.; Martín, E.

2015-05-01

Low-mass stars and brown dwarfs (with spectral types M, L, T and Y) are the most common objects in the Milky Way. A complete census of these objects is necessary to understand the theories about their complex structure and formation processes. In order to increase the number of known objects in the Solar neighborhood (d<30 pc), we have made use of the Virtual Observatory which allows an efficient handling of the huge amount of information available in astronomical databases. We also used the WFC3 installed in the Hubble Space Telescope to look for T5+ dwarfs binaries.

Muon identification with Muon Telescope Detector at the STAR experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, T. C.; Ma, R.; Huang, B.; Huang, X.; Ruan, L.; Todoroki, T.; Xu, Z.; Yang, C.; Yang, S.; Yang, Q.; Yang, Y.; Zha, W.

2016-10-01

The Muon Telescope Detector (MTD) is a newly installed detector in the STAR experiment. It provides an excellent opportunity to study heavy quarkonium physics using the dimuon channel in heavy ion collisions. In this paper, we report the muon identification performance for the MTD using proton-proton collisions at √{ s }=500 GeV with various methods. The result using the Likelihood Ratio method shows that the muon identification efficiency can reach up to ∼90% for muons with transverse momenta greater than 3 GeV/c and the significance of the J / ψ signal is improved by a factor of 2 compared to using the basic selection.

The Large Binocular Telescope's ARGOS ground-layer AO system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hart, M.; Rabien, S.; Busoni, L.; Barl, L.; Bechmann, U.; Bonaglia, M.; Boose, Y.; Borelli, J.; Bluemchen, T.; Carbonaro, L.; Connot, C.; Deysenroth, M.; Davies, R.; Durney, O.; Elberich, M.; Ertl, T.; Esposito, S.; Gaessler, W.; Gasho, V.; Gemperlein, H.; Hubbard, P.; Kanneganti, S.; Kulas, M.; Newman, K.; Noenickx, J.; Orban de Xivry, G.; Qirrenback, A.; Rademacher, M.; Schwab, C.; Storm, J.; Vaitheeswaran, V.; Weigelt, G.; Ziegleder, J.

2011-09-01

ARGOS, the laser-guided adaptive optics system for the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), is now under construction at the telescope. By correcting atmospheric turbulence close to the telescope, the system is designed to deliver high resolution near infrared images over a field of 4 arc minute diameter. ARGOS is motivated by a successful prototype multi-laser guide star system on the 6.5 m MMT telescope, results from which are presented in this paper. At the LBT, each side of the twin 8.4 m aperture is being equipped with three Rayleigh laser guide stars derived from six 18 W pulsed green lasers and projected into two triangular constellations matching the size of the corrected field. The returning light is to be detected by wavefront sensors that are range gated within the seeinglimited depth of focus of the telescope. Wavefront correction will be introduced by the telescope’s deformable secondary mirrors driven on the basis of the average wavefront errors computed from the respective guide star constellation. Measured atmospheric turbulence profiles from the site lead us to expect that by compensating the ground-layer turbulence, ARGOS will deliver median image quality of about 0.2 arc sec in the near infrared bands. This will be exploited by a pair of multi-object near-IR spectrographs, LUCI1 and LUCI2, each with 4 arc minute field already operating on the telescope. In future, ARGOS will also feed two interferometric imaging instruments, the LBT Interferometer operating in the thermal infrared, and LINC-NIRVANA, operating at visible and near infrared wavelengths. Together, these instruments will offer very broad spectral coverage at the diffraction limit of the LBT’s combined aperture, 23 m in size.

Measure Guideline: Installing Rigid Foam Insulation on the Interior of Existing Brick Walls

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Natarajan, H.; Klocke, S.; Puttagunta, S.

2012-06-01

This measure guideline provides information on an effective method to insulate the interior of existing brick masonry walls with extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation board. The guide outlines step-by-step design and installation procedures while explaining the benefits and tradeoffs where applicable. The authors intend that this document be useful to a varied audience that includes builders, remodelers, contractors and homeowners.

Hot water from the sun: a consumer guide to solar water heating

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McPherson, Beth

2005-02-15

The following topics are discussed: how solar water heaters work, making good use of the sun, estimating costs and savings, choosing the right dealer/installer, choosing the right system, warranties and contracts, getting a good installation, and living with your solar energy system. The appendices discuss system performance and durability, and provide sources of additional information on solar energy and its applications. (MHR)

Measure Guideline. Installing Rigid Foam Insulation on the Interior of Existing Brick Walls

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Natarajan, Hariharan; Klocke, Steve; Puttagunta, Srikanth

2012-06-01

This measure guideline provides information on an effective method to insulate the interior of existing brick masonry walls with extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation board. The guide outlines step-by-step design and installation procedures while explaining the benefits and tradeoffs where applicable. The authors intend that this document be useful to a varied audience that includes builders,remodelers, contractors and homeowners.

Eliminating Bias

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Learn how to eliminate bias from monitoring systems by instituting appropriate installation, operation, and quality assurance procedures. Provides links to download An Operator's Guide to Eliminating Bias in CEM Systems.

KSC-2009-1652

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-02-16

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At the Hazardous Processing Facility at Astrotech in Titusville, Fla., workers guide the suspended Kepler spacecraft onto a Delta II third stage. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are. The liftoff of Kepler aboard a Delta II rocket is currently targeted for 10:48 p.m. EST March 5 from Space Launch Complex 17 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder

An installed nacelle design code using a multiblock Euler solver. Volume 2: User guide

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chen, H. C.

1992-01-01

This is a user manual for the general multiblock Euler design (GMBEDS) code. The code is for the design of a nacelle installed on a geometrically complex configuration such as a complete airplane with wing/body/nacelle/pylon. It consists of two major building blocks: a design module developed by LaRC using directive iterative surface curvature (DISC); and a general multiblock Euler (GMBE) flow solver. The flow field surrounding a complex configuration is divided into a number of topologically simple blocks to facilitate surface-fitted grid generation and improve flow solution efficiency. This user guide provides input data formats along with examples of input files and a Unix script for program execution in the UNICOS environment.

True-sky demonstration of an autonomous star tracker

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Bezooijen, Roelof W.

1994-07-01

An autonomous star tracker (AST) is basically a `star field in, attitude out' device capable of determining its attitude without requiring any a priori attitude knowledge. In addition to this attitude acquisition capability, an AST can perform attitude updates autonomously and is able to provide its attitude `continuously' while tracking a star field. The Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory is developing a reliable, low-cost, miniature AST that has a one arcsec overall accuracy, weighs less than 1.5 kg, consumes less than 7 watts of power, and is sufficiently sensitive to be used at all sky locations. The device performs attitude acquisition in a fraction of a second and outputs its attitude at a 10 Hz rate when operating in its tracking mode. Besides providing the functionality needed for future advanced attitude control and navigation systems, an AST also improves spacecraft reliability, mass, power, cost, and operating expenses. The AST comprises a-thermalized, refractive optics, a frame-transfer CCD with a sensitive area of 1024 by 1024 pixels, camera electronics implemented with application- specific integrated circuits, a compact single board computer with a radiation hard 32 bit RISC processor, and an all-sky guide star database. Star identification is performed by a memory- efficient and highly robust algorithm that finds the largest group of observed stars matching a group of guide stars. An important milestone has recently been achieved with the validation of the attitude acquisition capability through correct and rapid identification of all 704 true-sky star fields obtained at the Lick Observatory, using an uncalibrated prototype AST with a 512 by 1024 pixel frame-transfer CCD and a 50 mm f/1.2 lens that provided an effective 6.5 by 13.2 degree field of view. The overlapping fields cover 47% of the sky, including both rich and sparse areas. The paper contains a description of the AST, a summary of the functions enabled or improved by the device, an overview of the identification algorithm, results obtained with a realistic simulation program, a description of the true-sky star field identification method and a presentation of the results obtained. The AST tolerates the presence of bright objects as was demonstrated by a field that included Jupiter.

Native Skywatchers and the Makoc&dotbelow;e Wic&dotbelow;aŋḣpi Wowapi—D(L)akota Star Map—Building Community Around Native Star Knowledge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, A. S.; Rock, J.

2014-07-01

In D(L)akota the Big Dipper is known as To/ToŋWiŋ—Blue/Birth Woman. She lives at the center of the scoop in the Big Dipper and is the door keeper between the star world and the Earth. The same group of seven bright stars is also known as Wịakiyuhapi, the Stretcher, and Waṡihdapi/Waṡiglapi, the Mourners. This is the beginning of the journey back into the spirit world for those leaving the Earth. Embedded in the native constellations are teachings that help guide and inspire native peoples. This workshop will present the D(L)akota Star Map and constellations of the current night sky. The Native Skywatchers research and programming seeks out elders, culture teachers, and community members to discuss the Ojibwe and D(L)akota star knowledge. Together we have created Makoc&dotbelow;e Wic&dotbelow;aŋḣpi Wowapi—D(L)akota Star Map. This map and related curriculum was published and disseminated to regional educators at our Native Skywatchers Middle School Teacher workshops in June 2012 and 2013. We are building community around the native star knowledge.

New ultra metal-poor stars from SDSS: follow-up GTC medium-resolution spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aguado, D. S.; Allende Prieto, C.; González Hernández, J. I.; Rebolo, R.; Caffau, E.

2017-07-01

Context. The first generation of stars formed in the Galaxy left behind the chemical signatures of their nucleosynthesis in the interstellar medium, visible today in the atmospheres of low-mass stars that formed afterwards. Sampling the chemistry of those low-mass provides insight into the first stars. Aims: We aim to increase the samples of stars with extremely low metal abundances, identifying ultra metal-poor stars from spectra with modest spectral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). Achieving this goal involves deriving reliable metallicities and carbon abundances from such spectra. Methods: We carry out follow-up observations of faint, V > 19, metal-poor candidates selected from SDSS spectroscopy and observed with the Optical System for Imaging and low-Intermediate-Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy (OSIRIS) at GTC. The SDSS and follow-up OSIRIS spectra were analyzed using the FERRE code to derive effective temperatures, surface gravities, metallicities and carbon abundances. In addition, a well-known extremely metal-poor star has been included in our sample to calibrate the analysis methodology. Results: We observed and analyzed five metal-poor candidates from modest-quality SDSS spectra. All stars in our sample have been confirmed as extremely metal-poor stars, in the [Fe/H] < -3.3 regime. We report the recognition of J173403+644632, a carbon-enhanced ultra metal-poor dwarf star with [Fe/H] = -4.3 and [C/Fe] = + 3.1. Based on observations made with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), installed in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, on the island of La Palma. Programme ID GTC2E-16A and ID GTC65-16B.

Engineers Install Near Infrared Camera into the Heart of Webb Telescope

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-03-31

nside the world's largest clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., engineers worked tirelessly to install another essential part of the James Webb Space Telescope - the Near Infrared Camera into the heart of the telescope. To complete this installation, the engineers needed to carefully move NIRCam inside the heart or ISIM, or Integrated Science Instrument Module that will house all of the science instruments. "Installing NIRCam into the center of the structure is nerve wracking because of the tight clearances," said Marcia J. Rieke, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, and principal investigator for the NIRCam. "I'm glad nothing bumped, and all the bolts are in place." NIRCam is a unique machine because in addition to being one of the four science instruments on the Webb, it also serves as the wavefront sensor, which means it will provide vital information for shaping the telescope mirrors and aligning its optics so that they can function properly and see into the distant universe. The NIRCam instrument will operate at very cold temperatures, and will be tested to ensure that it will be able to withstand the environment of space. The NIRCam is Webb's primary imager that will cover the infrared wavelength range 0.6 to 5 microns. It will detect light from the earliest stars and galaxies in the process of formation, the population of stars in nearby galaxies, as well as young stars and exoplanets in the Milky Way. NIRCam is provided by the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. For more information about the Webb telescope, visit: www.jwst.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov/webb Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Gunn NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Line of Sight Stabilization of James Webb Space Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meza, Luis; Tung, Frank; Anandakrishnan, Satya; Spector, Victor; Hyde, Tupper

2005-01-01

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) builds upon the successful flight experience of the Chandra Xray Telescope by incorporating an additional LOS pointing servo to meet the more stringent pointing requirements. The LOS pointing servo, referred to in JWST as the Fine Guidance Control System (FGCS), will utilize a Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) as the sensor, and a Fine Steering Mirror (FSM) as the actuator. The FSM is a part of the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) and is in the optical path between the tertiary mirror and the instrument focal plane, while the FGS is part of the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM). The basic Chandra spacecraft bus attitude control and determination architecture, utilizing gyros, star trackers/aspect camera, and reaction wheels, is retained for JWST. This system has achieved pointing stability of better than 0.5 arcseconds. To reach the JWST requirements of milli-arcsecond pointing stability with this ACS hardware, the local FGCS loop is added to the optical path. The FGCS bandwidth is about 2.0 Hz and will therefore attenuate much of the spacecraft ACS induced low frequency jitter. In order to attenuate the higher frequency (greatet than 2.0 Hz) disturbances associated with reaction wheel static and dynamic imbalances, as well as bearing run-out, JWST will employ a two-stage passive vibration isolation system consisting of (1) 7.0 Hz reaction wheel isolators between each reaction wheel and the spacecraft bus, and (2) a 1.0 Hz tower isolator between the spacecraft bus and the Optical Telescope Element (OTE). In order to sense and measure the LOS, the FGS behaves much like an autonomous star tracker that has a very small field of view and uses the optics of the telescope. It performs the functions of acquisition, identification and tracking of stars in its 2.5 x 2.5 arcminute field of view (FOV), and provides the centroid and magnitude of the selected star for use in LOS control. However, since only a single star is being tracked at any time within the FGS FOV there is only tip and tilt information; rotation about the FGS LOS will not be sensed. The FGCS uses the FSM to move the guide star within the FGS FOV and place the centroid of the guide star at any desired position within the FGS focal plane. Using this architecture allows the FGCS to correct the low frequency LOS jitter that is induced by the spacecraft ACS in pitch and yaw, and achieve the milli-arcsecond pointing stability required by JWST. The less stringent ISIM FOV roll performance will be provided solely by the ACS, using the spacecraft gyros and star trackers. Since the FSM is in the optical path, the pointing stabilrty of a science object in any of the instruments will be similar to that of the guide star LOS.

The Orion Constellation as an Installation: An Innovative Three-Dimensional Teaching and Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Daniel

2013-01-01

Visualizing the three-dimensional distribution of stars within a constellation is highly challenging for both students and educators, but when carried out in an interactive collaborative way, it can create an ideal environment to explore common misconceptions about size and scale within astronomy. We present how the common tabletop activities…

Why Aren’t Lightsabers Real Yet? Get the Lowdown from a Laser Physicist

ScienceCinema

Hunsberger, Maren; Liao, Zhi

2018-06-22

The release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" begs the obvious question: Why aren't lightsabers real yet? LLNL science communicator Maren Hunsberger gets the lowdown from laser physicist Zhi Liao in this first installment of "Inside the Lab," a new YouTube series exploring crazy-cool science questions.

Appendix 2. Guide for Running AgMIP Climate Scenario Generation Tools with R in Windows, Version 2.3

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hudson, Nicholas; Ruane, Alexander Clark

2013-01-01

This Guide explains how to create climate series and climate change scenarios by using the AgMip Climate team's methodology as outlined in the AgMIP Guide for Regional Assessment: Handbook of Methods and Procedures. It details how to: install R and the required packages to run the AgMIP Climate Scenario Generation scripts, and create climate scenarios from CMIP5 GCMs using a 30-year baseline daily weather dataset. The Guide also outlines a workflow that can be modified for application to your own climate data.

A search for ejecta nebulae around Wolf-Rayet stars using the SHS Hα survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stock, D. J.; Barlow, M. J.

2010-12-01

Recent large-scale Galactic plane Hα surveys allow a re-examination of the environs of Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars for the presence of a circumstellar nebula. Using the morphologies of WR nebulae known to be composed of stellar ejecta as a guide, we constructed ejecta nebula criteria similar to those of Chu and searched for likely WR ejecta nebulae in the Southern Hα Survey (SHS). A new WR ejecta nebula around WR 8 is found and its morphology is discussed. The fraction of WR stars with ejecta-type nebulae is roughly consistent between the Milky Way (MW) and Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) at around 5-6 per cent, with the MW sample dominated by nitrogen-rich WR central stars (WN type) and the LMC stars having a higher proportion of carbon-rich WR central stars (WC type). We compare our results with those of previous surveys, including those of Marston and Miller & Chu, and find broad consistency. We investigate several trends in the sample: most of the clear examples of ejecta nebulae have WNh central stars, and very few ejecta nebulae have binary central stars. Finally, the possibly unique evolutionary status of the nebula around the binary star WR 71 is explored.

Comparison Study II: Double Star Measurements Made Using an Equatorial Mounted Refractor and an Alt-Az Mounted Reflector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frey, Thomas G.; Coombs, Lee C.

2012-07-01

Eight double stars with separations between 13 and 48 arc seconds were studied. Their separations and position angles were measured using an equatorial mounted refractor and and alt-az mounted reflector. A 2x Barlow lens was used along with a Celestron Micro Guide eyepiece to magnify the separation. Comparison of the possible effect of magnitude difference on the separation and position angle measurements was investigated.

User's guide for vectorized code EQUIL for calculating equilibrium chemistry on Control Data STAR-100 computer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kumar, A.; Graves, R. A., Jr.; Weilmuenster, K. J.

1980-01-01

A vectorized code, EQUIL, was developed for calculating the equilibrium chemistry of a reacting gas mixture on the Control Data STAR-100 computer. The code provides species mole fractions, mass fractions, and thermodynamic and transport properties of the mixture for given temperature, pressure, and elemental mass fractions. The code is set up for the electrons H, He, C, O, N system of elements. In all, 24 chemical species are included.

CHARACTERIZATION OF CoRoT TARGET FIELDS WITH BERLIN EXOPLANET SEARCH TELESCOPE. II. IDENTIFICATION OF PERIODIC VARIABLE STARS IN THE LRc2 FIELD

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kabath, P.; Fruth, T.; Rauer, H.

2009-04-15

We report on photometric observations of the CoRoT LRc2 field with the new robotic Berlin Exoplanet Search Telescope II (BEST II). The telescope system was installed and commissioned at the Observatorio Cerro Armazones, Chile, in 2007. BEST II is a small aperture telescope with a wide field of view dedicated to the characterization of the stellar variability primarily in CoRoT target fields with high stellar densities. The CoRoT stellar field LRc2 was observed with BEST II up to 20 nights in 2007 July and August. From the acquired data containing about 100,000 stars, 426 new periodic variable stars were identifiedmore » and 90% of them are located within the CoRoT exoplanetary CCD segments and may be of further interest for CoRoT additional science programs.« less

AFRC2016-0116-065

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-04-15

The newest instrument, an infrared camera called the High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera-Plus (HAWC+), was installed on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, in April of 2016. This is the only currently operating astronomical camera that makes images using far-infrared light, allowing studies of low-temperature early stages of star and planet formation. HAWC+ includes a polarimeter, a device that measures the alignment of incoming light waves. With the polarimeter, HAWC+ can map magnetic fields in star forming regions and in the environment around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. These new maps can reveal how the strength and direction of magnetic fields affect the rate at which interstellar clouds condense to form new stars. A team led by C. Darren Dowell at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and including participants from more than a dozen institutions developed the instrument.

KSC-2012-3199

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-06-04

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – An Orbital Sciences’ Pegasus rocket and NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, are installed under Orbital’s L-1011 carrier aircraft and await departure from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pegasus, mated to its NuSTAR payload, will be launched from the carrier aircraft 117 nautical miles south of Kwajalein at latitude 6.75 degrees north of the equator. The high-energy X-ray telescope will conduct a census of black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. Launch is scheduled for June 13. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

Articulated, Performance-Based Instruction Objectives Guide for Air Conditioning, Refrigeration, and Heating. Volume II (Second Year).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henderson, William Edward, Jr., Ed.

This articulation guide contains 17 units of instruction for the second year of a two-year vocational program designed to prepare the high school graduate to install, maintain, and repair various types of residential and commercial heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration equipment. The units are designed to help the student to expand and…

Playground Equipment Guide: For Teachers, Park and Recreation Directors, Parents, Youth Leaders, and Other Concerned Adults.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Consumer Product Safety Commission, Washington, DC.

This guide was designed to assist parents, teachers, youth leaders, and park and recreation directors in the safe selection, use, installation, maintenance and repair of playground equipment. The nature and necessity of children's play are discussed briefly and information is presented on four main types of playground equipment: (1) swings, (2)…

Net Zero Energy Military Installations: A Guide to Assessment and Planning

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Booth, S.; Barnett, J.; Burman, K.

2010-08-01

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) recognizes the strategic importance of energy to its mission, and is working to reduce energy consumption and enhance energy self-sufficiency by drawing on local clean energy sources. A joint initiative formed between DoD and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2008 to address military energy use led to a task force to examine the potential for net zero energy military installations, which would produce as much energy on site as they consume in buildings, facilities, and fleet vehicles. This report presents an assessment and planning process to examine military installations for net zeromore » energy potential. Net Zero Energy Installation Assessment (NZEIA) presents a systematic framework to analyze energy projects at installations while balancing other site priorities such as mission, cost, and security.« less

Conceptual design for a user-friendly adaptive optics system at Lick Observatory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bissinger, H.D.; Olivier, S.; Max, C.

1996-03-08

In this paper, we present a conceptual design for a general-purpose adaptive optics system, usable with all Cassegrain facility instruments on the 3 meter Shane telescope at the University of California`s Lick Observatory located on Mt. Hamilton near San Jose, California. The overall design goal for this system is to take the sodium-layer laser guide star adaptive optics technology out of the demonstration stage and to build a user-friendly astronomical tool. The emphasis will be on ease of calibration, improved stability and operational simplicity in order to allow the system to be run routinely by observatory staff. A prototype adaptivemore » optics system and a 20 watt sodium-layer laser guide star system have already been built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for use at Lick Observatory. The design presented in this paper is for a next- generation adaptive optics system that extends the capabilities of the prototype system into the visible with more degrees of freedom. When coupled with a laser guide star system that is upgraded to a power matching the new adaptive optics system, the combined system will produce diffraction-limited images for near-IR cameras. Atmospheric correction at wavelengths of 0.6-1 mm will significantly increase the throughput of the most heavily used facility instrument at Lick, the Kast Spectrograph, and will allow it to operate with smaller slit widths and deeper limiting magnitudes. 8 refs., 2 figs.« less

Mesospheric sodium structure variability on horizontal scales relevant to laser guide star asterisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pfrommer, Thomas; Hickson, Paul

2012-07-01

Adaptive optics (AO) systems of modern telescopes use laser guide stars, produced by resonant excitation of sodium atoms in the mesosphere at around 92 km. Wavefront sensor subapertures, if sufficiently far away from the primary mirror center, resolve the internal structure of the sodium layer. The variability of this structure is caused by the influence of gravity waves and wind shear turbulence. The relevance of such dynamics to AO has been investigated over the past four years. A high-resolution lidar system, employed at the 6-m liquid mirror telescope, which is located near Vancouver, Canada, has been used to study mesospheric dynamics, such as the temporal behavior of the mean altitude. The main results from this study have been published elsewhere and will be summarized here. Along with the temporal variability, the mean altitude on horizontal scales of order IOs of meters has been studied by introducing a tip/tilt stage in the experimental setup. This enables us to swap the laser pulse within a 1 arcmin field of view. The horizontal mean altitude structure function has been measured on 10 observing nights between July and August 2011. Results reveal severe structural differences and a strong horizontal anisotropy. Individual laser beacons in a laser guide star asterism will therefore have at the same time significantly different focus heights. By propagating this 2d structure function to the entrance pupil of a 39 m telescope, we derive a differential focus wavefront error map.

AISS Miro Manual: A Rough Guide

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-12-01

Architechture for Autonomy. This document gives the reader background on “Miro” and the detailed procedure used to install the toolkit and all associated...and address of the organization preparing the document. Organizations for whom the document was prepared, e.g. Centre sponsoring a contractor’s report...to build DRDC’s Architechture for Autonomy. This document gives the reader background on “Miro” and the detailed procedure used to install the toolkit

Federal Emergency Management Information System (FEMIS) system administration guide. Version 1.4

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Arp, J.A.; Burnett, R.A.; Downing, T.R.

The Federal Emergency Management Information System (FEMIS) is an emergency management planning and analysis tool that was developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) under the direction of the US Army Chemical Biological Defense Command. The FEMIS System Administration Guide defines FEMIS hardware and software requirements and gives instructions for installing the FEMIS software package. This document also contains information on the following: software installation for the FEMIS data servers, communication server, mail server, and the emergency management workstations; distribution media loading and FEMIS installation validation and troubleshooting; and system management of FEMIS users, login privileges, and usage. Themore » system administration utilities (tools), available in the FEMIS client software, are described for user accounts and site profile. This document also describes the installation and use of system and database administration utilities that will assist in keeping the FEMIS system running in an operational environment. The FEMIS system is designed for a single Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) site that has multiple Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs). Each EOC has personal computers (PCs) that emergency planners and operations personnel use to do their jobs. These PCs are connected via a local area network (LAN) to servers that provide EOC-wide services. Each EOC is interconnected to other EOCs via telecommunications links.« less

Detection of a large sample of γ Doradus stars from Kepler space photometry and high-resolution ground-based spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tkachenko, A.; Aerts, C.; Yakushechkin, A.; Debosscher, J.; Degroote, P.; Bloemen, S.; Pápics, P. I.; de Vries, B. L.; Lombaert, R.; Hrudkova, M.; Frémat, Y.; Raskin, G.; Van Winckel, H.

2013-08-01

Context. The launches of the MOST, CoRoT, and Kepler missions opened up a new era in asteroseismology, the study of stellar interiors via interpretation of pulsation patterns observed at the surfaces of large groups of stars. These space missions deliver a huge amount of high-quality photometric data suitable to study numerous pulsating stars. Aims: Our ultimate goal is a detection and analysis of an extended sample of γ Dor-type pulsating stars with the aim to search for observational evidence of non-uniform period spacings and rotational splittings of gravity modes in main-sequence stars typically twice as massive as the Sun. This kind of diagnostic can be used to deduce the internal rotation law and to estimate the amount of rotational mixing in the near core regions. Methods: We applied an automated supervised photometric classification method to select a sample of 69 Gamma Doradus (γ Dor) candidate stars. We used an advanced method to extract the Kepler light curves from the pixel data information using custom masks. For 36 of the stars, we obtained high-resolution spectroscopy with the HERMES spectrograph installed at the Mercator telescope. The spectroscopic data are analysed to determine the fundamental parameters like Teff, log g, vsini, and [M/H]. Results: We find that all stars for which spectroscopic estimates of Teff and log g are available fall into the region of the HR diagram, where the γ Dor and δ Sct instability strips overlap. The stars cluster in a 700 K window in effective temperature; log g measurements suggest luminosity class IV-V, i.e. sub-giant or main-sequence stars. From the Kepler photometry, we identify 45 γ Dor-type pulsators, 14 γ Dor/δ Sct hybrids, and 10 stars, which are classified as "possibly γ Dor/δ Sct hybrid pulsators". We find a clear correlation between the spectroscopically derived vsini and the frequencies of independent pulsation modes. Conclusions: We have shown that our photometric classification based on the light curve morphology and colour information is very robust. The results of spectroscopic classification perfectly agree with the photometric classification. We show that the detected correlation between vsini and frequencies has nothing to do with rotational modulation of the stars but is related to their stellar pulsations. Our sample and frequency determinations offer a good starting point for seismic modelling of slow to moderately rotating γ Dor stars. Based on data gathered with NASA Discovery mission Kepler and spectra obtained with the HERMES spectrograph, which is installed at the Mercator Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma by the Flemish Community at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, and supported by the Fund for Scientific Research of Flanders (FWO), Belgium, the Research Council of KU Leuven, Belgium, the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS), Belgium, the Royal Observatory of Belgium, the Observatoire de Genève, Switzerland, and the Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Germany.Tables A.1 and B.1 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/556/A52

A fast and efficient python library for interfacing with the Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank.

PubMed

Smelter, Andrey; Astra, Morgan; Moseley, Hunter N B

2017-03-17

The Biological Magnetic Resonance Data Bank (BMRB) is a public repository of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopic data of biological macromolecules. It is an important resource for many researchers using NMR to study structural, biophysical, and biochemical properties of biological macromolecules. It is primarily maintained and accessed in a flat file ASCII format known as NMR-STAR. While the format is human readable, the size of most BMRB entries makes computer readability and explicit representation a practical requirement for almost any rigorous systematic analysis. To aid in the use of this public resource, we have developed a package called nmrstarlib in the popular open-source programming language Python. The nmrstarlib's implementation is very efficient, both in design and execution. The library has facilities for reading and writing both NMR-STAR version 2.1 and 3.1 formatted files, parsing them into usable Python dictionary- and list-based data structures, making access and manipulation of the experimental data very natural within Python programs (i.e. "saveframe" and "loop" records represented as individual Python dictionary data structures). Another major advantage of this design is that data stored in original NMR-STAR can be easily converted into its equivalent JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format, a lightweight data interchange format, facilitating data access and manipulation using Python and any other programming language that implements a JSON parser/generator (i.e., all popular programming languages). We have also developed tools to visualize assigned chemical shift values and to convert between NMR-STAR and JSONized NMR-STAR formatted files. Full API Reference Documentation, User Guide and Tutorial with code examples are also available. We have tested this new library on all current BMRB entries: 100% of all entries are parsed without any errors for both NMR-STAR version 2.1 and version 3.1 formatted files. We also compared our software to three currently available Python libraries for parsing NMR-STAR formatted files: PyStarLib, NMRPyStar, and PyNMRSTAR. The nmrstarlib package is a simple, fast, and efficient library for accessing data from the BMRB. The library provides an intuitive dictionary-based interface with which Python programs can read, edit, and write NMR-STAR formatted files and their equivalent JSONized NMR-STAR files. The nmrstarlib package can be used as a library for accessing and manipulating data stored in NMR-STAR files and as a command-line tool to convert from NMR-STAR file format into its equivalent JSON file format and vice versa, and to visualize chemical shift values. Furthermore, the nmrstarlib implementation provides a guide for effectively JSONizing other older scientific formats, improving the FAIRness of data in these formats.

STS-26 Discovery, OV-103, SSME (2019) installed in position number one at KSC

NASA Image and Video Library

1988-01-10

S88-29076 (10 Jan 1988) --- KSC employees work together to carefully guide a 7,000 pound main engine into the number one position in Discovery's aft compartment. Because of the engine's weight and size, special handling equipment is needed to perform the installation. Discovery is currently being prepared for the upcoming STS-26 mission in bay 1 of the Orbiter Processing Facility. This engine, 2019, arrived at KSC on Jan. 6 and was installed Jan. 10. The other two engines are scheduled to be installed later this month. The shuttle's three main liquid fueled engines provide the main propulsion for the orbiter vehicle. The cluster of three engines operate in parallel with the solid rocket boosters during the initial ascent.

KSC-2009-1884

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-02-26

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – On Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, workers wait for the arrival of the two fairing components that will be installed around NASA's Kepler spacecraft, seen at left. The fairing is a molded structure that fits flush with the outside surface of the rocket and forms an aerodynamically smooth nose cone, protecting the spacecraft during launch and ascent. The liftoff of Kepler aboard the Delta II rocket is currently targeted for launch in a window extending 10:49 to 10:52 p.m. EST March 6 from Pad 17-B. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

Illumination of interior spaces by bended hollow light guides: Application of the theoretical light propagation method

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Darula, Stanislav; Kocifaj, Miroslav; Kittler, Richard

2010-12-15

To ensure comfort and healthy conditions in interior spaces the thermal, acoustics and daylight factors of the environment have to be considered in the building design. Due to effective energy performance in buildings the new technology and applications also in daylight engineering are sought such as tubular light guides. These allow the transport of natural light into the building core reducing energy consumption. A lot of installations with various geometrical and optical properties can be applied in real buildings. The simplest set of tubular light guide consists of a transparent cupola, direct tube with high reflected inner surface and amore » ceiling cover or diffuser redistributing light into the interior. Such vertical tubular guide is often used on flat roofs. When the roof construction is inclined a bend in the light guide system has to be installed. In this case the cupola is set on the sloped roof which collects sunlight and skylight from the seen part of the sky hemisphere as well as that reflected from the ground and opposite facades. In comparison with the vertical tube some additional light losses and distortions of the propagated light have to be expected in bended tubular light guides. Recently the theoretical model of light propagation was already published and its applications are presented in this study solving illuminance distributions on the ceiling cover interface and further illuminance distribution on the working plane in the interior. (author)« less

The Stellar Cusp in the Galactic Center: Three-Dimensional Orbits of Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chappell, Samantha; Ghez, Andrea M.; Boehle, Anna; Yelda, Sylvana; Sitarski, Breann; Witzel, Gunther; Do, Tuan; Lu, Jessica R.; Morris, Mark; Becklin, Eric E.

2015-01-01

We present new findings from our long term study of the nuclear star cluster around the Galaxy's central supermassive blackhole (SMBH). Measurements where made using speckle and laser guided adaptive optics imaging and integral field spectroscopy on the Keck telescopes. We report 13 new measurable accelerating sources around the SMBH, down to ~17 mag in K band, only 4 of which are known to be young stars, the rest are either known to be old stars or have yet to be spectral typed. Thus we more than double the number of measured accelerations for the known old stars and unknown spectral type population (increasing the number from 6 to 15). Previous observations suggest a flat density profile of late-type stars, contrary to the theorized Bahcall-Wolf cusp (Bahcall & Wolf 1976, 1977; Buchholz et al. 2009; Do et al. 2009; Bartko et al. 2010). With three-dimensional orbits of significantly accelerating sources, we will be able to better characterize the stellar cusp in the Galactic center, including the slope of the stellar density profile.

High Resolution Active Optics Observations from the Kepler Follow-up Observation Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gautier, Thomas N.; Ciardi, D. R.; Marcy, G. W.; Hirsch, L.

2014-01-01

The ground based follow-up observation program for candidate exoplanets discovered with the Kepler observatory has supported a major effort for high resolution imaging of candidate host stars using adaptive optics wave-front correction (AO), speckle imaging and lucky imaging. These images allow examination of the sky as close as a few tenths of an arcsecond from the host stars to detect background objects that might be the source of the Kepler transit signal instead of the host star. This poster reports on the imaging done with AO cameras on the Keck, Palomar 5m and Shane 3m (Lick Observatory) which have been used to obtain high resolution images of over 500 Kepler Object of Interest (KOI) exoplanet candidate host stars. All observations were made at near infrared wavelengths in the J, H and K bands, mostly using the host target star as the AO guide star. Details of the sensitivity to background objects actually attained by these observations and the number of background objects discovered are presented. Implications to the false positive rate of the Kepler candidates are discussed.

Fixed-head star tracker attitude updates on the Hubble Space Telescope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nadelman, Matthew S.; Karl, Jeffrey B.; Hallock, Lou

1994-01-01

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched in April 1990 to begin observing celestial space to the edge of the universe. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) standard fixed-head star trackers (FHST's) are used operationally onboard the HST to regularly adjust ('update') the spacecraft attitude before the acquisition of guide stars for science observations. During the first 3 months of the mission, the FHST's updated the spacecraft attitude successfully only 85 percent of the time. During the other periods, the trackers were unable to find the selected stars -- either they failed to find any star, or worse, they selected incorrect stars and produced erroneous attitude updates. In July 1990, the HST project office at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) requested that Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) form an investigative 'tiger' team to examine these FHST update failures. This paper discusses the work of the FHST tiger team, describes the investigations that led the team to identify the sources of the errors, and defines the solutions that were subsequently developed, which ultimately increased the success rate of FHST updates to approximately 98 percent.

Space-Based Observations of Satellites From the MOST Microsatellite

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-11-01

error estimate for these observations. To perform differential photometry, reference magnitudes for the background stars are needed. The Hubble Guide ...22 6.3 External Calibration References ..................................................................... 23 6.4 Post...32 10. References

Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph 2005: Overview of Technology Development and System Design Studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ford, Virginia G.

2005-01-01

Technology research, design trades, and modeling and analysis guide the definition of a Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph Mission that will search for and characterize earth-like planets around near-by stars. Operating in visible wavebands, this mission will use coronagraphy techniques to suppress starlight to enable capturing and imaging the reflected light from a planet orbiting in the habitable zone of its parent star. The light will be spectrally characterized to determine the presence of life-indicating chemistry in the planet atmosphere.

Muon identification with Muon Telescope Detector at the STAR experiment

DOE PAGES

Huang, T. C.; Ma, R.; Huang, B.; ...

2016-07-15

The Muon Telescope Detector (MTD) is a newly installed detector in the STAR experiment. It provides an excellent opportunity to study heavy quarkonium physics using the dimuon channel in heavy ion collisions. In this paper, we report the muon identification performance for the MTD using proton-proton collisions atmore » $$\\sqrt{s}$$ = 500 GeV with various methods. Here, the result using the Likelihood Ratio method shows that the muon identification efficiency can reach up to ~ 90% for muons with transverse momenta greater than 3 GeV/c and the significance of the J/ψ signal is improved by a factor of 2 compared to using the basic selection.« less

KSC01KODI050

NASA Image and Video Library

2001-06-19

KODIAK ISLAND, Alaska -- The fueled Orbit Adjust Model (OAM), which navigates payloads into the correct orbit, is installed onto Orbis 21D Equipment Section Boost Motor, the second stage of the Athena 1 launch vehicle, at the launch pad at Kodiak Island, Alaska, as preparations to launch Kodiak Star proceed. The first orbital launch to take place from Alaska's Kodiak Launch Complex, Kodiak Star is scheduled to lift off on a Lockheed Martin Athena I launch vehicle on Sept. 17 during a two-hour window that extends from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. ADT. The payloads aboard include the Starshine 3, sponsored by NASA, and the PICOSat, PCSat and Sapphire, sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program.

Large scale implementation of guided wave based broken rail monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burger, Francois A.; Loveday, Philip W.; Long, Craig S.

2015-03-01

A guided wave ultrasound system has been developed over the past 17 years to detect breaks in continuously welded rail track. Installation of the version 4 system on an 840 km long heavy duty freight line was conducted between January 2013 and June 2014. The system operates in pitch - catch mode with alternate transmit and receive transducers spaced approximately 1km apart. If the acoustic signal is not received at the receive station an alarm is triggered to indicate a break in the rail between the transmit station and the receive station. The system is permanently installed, powered by solar panels and issues broken rail alarms using the GSM network where available, and digital radio technology in other areas. A total of 931 stations were installed and the entire length of rail is interrogated every fifteen minutes. The system operates reliably although some problems involving unreliable GSM communication and theft of solar panels have been experienced. In the first two months of operation four broken rails were detected and train operation was halted temporarily for repairs.

The Black Hole Masses and Star Formation Rates of z>1 Dust Obscured Galaxies: Results from Keck OSIRIS Integral Field Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Melbourne, J.; Peng, Chien Y.; Soifer, B. T.; Urrutia, Tanya; Desai, Vandana; Armus, L.; Bussmann, R. S.; Dey, Arjun; Matthews, K.

2011-04-01

We have obtained high spatial resolution Keck OSIRIS integral field spectroscopy of four z ~ 1.5 ultra-luminous infrared galaxies that exhibit broad Hα emission lines indicative of strong active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity. The observations were made with the Keck laser guide star adaptive optics system giving a spatial resolution of 0farcs1 or <1 kpc at these redshifts. These high spatial resolution observations help to spatially separate the extended narrow-line regions—possibly powered by star formation—from the nuclear regions, which may be powered by both star formation and AGN activity. There is no evidence for extended, rotating gas disks in these four galaxies. Assuming dust correction factors as high as A(Hα) = 4.8 mag, the observations suggest lower limits on the black hole masses of (1-9) × 108 M sun and star formation rates <100 M sun yr-1. The black hole masses and star formation rates of the sample galaxies appear low in comparison to other high-z galaxies with similar host luminosities. We explore possible explanations for these observations, including host galaxy fading, black hole growth, and the shut down of star formation.

GHRS Spectroscopy of individual stars in R136a

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heap, Sara R.; Ebbets, Dennis; Malumuth, Eliot M.; Maran, Stephen P.; Koter, Alex DE; Hubeny, Ivan

1994-01-01

The installation of the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) Instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) makes it possible to observe stars in very crowded regions with high spatial and spectral purity. To demonstrate this capability, we have used the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) to obtain spectra of two stars in the dense center of the 30 Doradus ionizing cluster: R136a5, and its nearest neighbor, R136a2, only 0.17 sec away. R136a5 is shown to ben an O3f/WN star, while R136a2 is a WN4-w star. From both Wide Field/Planetary Camera (WFPC) photometry and GHRS, spectroscopy we estimate the following properties of R136a5: T(sub eff) = 42,500 K, R = 16.4 solar radius, L(sub bol) = 8 x 10(exp 5) solar luminosity, and M approx. equals 50 solar mass -- all indicating that, despite its spectral type, R136a5, as indicated by the strength of He II lambda 1640 emission. The observed mass-loss rate, dot-M = 1.8 x 10(exp -5) solar mass/yr, is an order of magnitude higher than is assumed by current stellar evolutionary models. We argue that this high rate of mass loss will alter drastically the evolutionary path of R136a5. If so, evolutionary models for massive stars require substantial revision.

GHRS Spectroscopy of individual stars in R136a

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heap, Sara R.; Ebbets, Dennis; Malumuth, Eliot M.; Maran, Stephen P.; de Koter, Alex; Hubeny, Ivan

1994-11-01

The installation of the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) Instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) makes it possible to observe stars in very crowded regions with high spatial and spectral purity. To demonstrate this capability, we have used the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) to obtain spectra of two stars in the dense center of the 30 Doradus ionizing cluster: R136a5, and its nearest neighbor, R136a2, only 0.17 sec away. R136a5 is shown to ben an O3f/WN star, while R136a2 is a WN4-w star. From both Wide Field/Planetary Camera (WFPC) photometry and GHRS, spectroscopy we estimate the following properties of R136a5: Teff = 42,500 K, R = 16.4 solar radius, Lbol = 8 x 105 solar luminosity, and M approx. equals 50 solar mass -- all indicating that, despite its spectral type, R136a5, as indicated by the strength of He II lambda 1640 emission. The observed mass-loss rate, dot-M = 1.8 x 10-5 solar mass/yr, is an order of magnitude higher than is assumed by current stellar evolutionary models. We argue that this high rate of mass loss will alter drastically the evolutionary path of R136a5. If so, evolutionary models for massive stars require substantial revision.

Guide to the Job Training Partnership Act. Cumulative Analyses of the Law and Subsequent Policy Issuances. Installment #1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Alliance of Business, Inc., Washington, DC.

This guide is the first in a series of interpretive explanations of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). It is designed to provide practitioners and business leaders involved in state and local employment and training programs with an understanding of how to implement the public-private partnership of JTPA. This first edition does the…

Planning for PACS: a comprehensive guide to nontechnical considerations.

PubMed

Cohen, Mervyn D; Rumreich, Lori L; Garriot, Kimberley M; Jennings, S Gregory

2005-04-01

A complete picture archiving and communication system (PACS) installation is one of the largest projects a radiology department will undertake. Although technology issues are important, they often draw focus away from many other significant issues This paper describes in detail all of these other necessary components that need to be addressed if a PACS installation is to be relatively trouble free, provides guidelines for successful PACS implementation, and details pitfalls to be avoided.

Hot Star Extension to the Hubble Space Telescope Stellar Spectral Library

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khan, Islam; Worthey, Guy

2017-01-01

CCD spectra of 36 stars were obtained from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) installed in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) using three low resolution gratings - G230LB, G430L, and G750L, combined in processing to make single, continuous spectra from 0.2 to 1.0 micrometers. These spectra will be added to the Next Generation Stellar Library (NGSL) after completing the data analysis, reduction, and the required corrections. The stars include normal O-type stars, helium-burning stars, and post-asymptotic giant branch (PAGB) stars. Difficult steps in the data reduction process were removing the cosmic rays from the raw images and defringing of the G750L spectra using fringe flats. Most stars have detectable dust extinction. To aid in analysis, synthetic spectra were generated with various effective temperatures and surface gravities. A five parameter analytic model for the dust extinction correction was adopted. The parameters were varied in order to fit especially the ultraviolet portion of the observed and comparison synthetic spectra. Cross-correlation was used to bring the spectra to a common, final, zero velocity wavelength scale. Some star temperatures obtained from fitting synthetic versus observed spectra vary significantly from literature values. The dust extinction correction parameters also varied for several stars, mostly O stars, indicating variations in dust properties for different lines of sight. Analysis of scattered light effects showed that it was significant only for our two coolest stars.Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.Support for this work was provided by NASA through grant number HST-GO-14141 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.

MAPPING THE CLUMPY STRUCTURES WITHIN SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES USING LASER-GUIDE STAR ADAPTIVE OPTICS SPECTROSCOPY

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Menendez-Delmestre, Karin; Goncalves, Thiago S.; Blain, Andrew W.

2013-04-20

We present the first integral-field spectroscopic observations of high-redshift submillimeter-selected galaxies (SMGs) using Laser-Guide Star Adaptive Optics. We target H{alpha} emission of three SMGs at redshifts z {approx} 1.4-2.4 with the OH-Suppressing Infrared Imaging Spectrograph on Keck. The spatially resolved spectroscopy of these galaxies reveals unresolved broad-H{alpha} line regions (FWHM >1000 km s{sup -1}) likely associated with an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and regions of diffuse star formation traced by narrow-line H{alpha} emission (FWHM {approx}< 500 km s{sup -1}) dominated by multiple H{alpha}-bright stellar clumps, each contributing 1%-30% of the total clump-integrated H{alpha} emission. We find that these SMGs hostmore » high star formation rate surface densities, similar to local extreme sources, such as circumnuclear starbursts and luminous infrared galaxies. However, in contrast to these local environments, SMGs appear to be undergoing such intense activity on significantly larger spatial scales as revealed by extended H{alpha} emission over 4-16 kpc. H{alpha} kinematics show no evidence of ordered global motion as would be found in a disk, but rather large velocity offsets ({approx}few Multiplication-Sign 100 km s{sup -1}) between the distinct stellar clumps. Together with the asymmetric distribution of the stellar clumps around the AGN in these objects, it is unlikely that we are unveiling a clumpy disk structure as has been suggested in other high-redshift populations of star-forming galaxies. The SMG clumps in this sample may correspond to remnants of originally independent gas-rich systems that are in the process of merging, hence triggering the ultraluminous SMG phase.« less

78 FR 73566 - Standard Format and Content for a License Application for an Independent Spent Fuel Storage...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-06

...The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comment draft regulatory guide (DG), DG-3042, ``Standard Format and Content for a License Application for an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation or a Monitored Retrievable Storage Facility.'' This draft regulatory guide is proposed revision 2 of Regulatory Guide 3.50, which provides a format that the NRC considers acceptable for submitting the information for license applications to store spent nuclear fuel, high-level radioactive waste, and/or reactor-related Greater than Class C waste.

From Cool to Hot F-stars: The Influence of Two Ionization Regions in the Acoustic Oscillations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brito, Ana; Lopes, Ilídio

2018-02-01

The high-precision data available from the Kepler satellite allows us to study the complex outer convective envelopes of solar-type stars. We use a seismic diagnostic, specialized for investigating the outer layers of solar-type stars, to infer the impact of the ionization processes on the oscillation spectrum, for a sample of Kepler stars. These stars, of spectral type F, cover all of the observational seismic domain of the acoustic oscillation spectrum in solar-type stars. They also cover the range between a cool F-dwarf (∼6000 K) and a hotter F-star (∼6400 K). Our study reveals the existence of two relevant ionization regions. One of these regions, which is located closer to the surface of the star, is commonly associated with the second ionization of helium, although other chemical species also contribute to ionization. The second region, located deeper in the envelope, is linked with the ionization of heavy elements. Specifically, in this study, we analyze the elements carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, and iron. Both regions can be related to the K electronic shell. We show that, while for cooler stars like the Sun, the influence of this second region on the oscillation frequencies is small; in hotter stars, its influence becomes comparable to the influence of the region of the second ionization of helium. This can guide us in the study of the outer layers of F-stars, specifically with the understanding of phenomena related to rotation and magnetic activity in these stars.

KAPAO first light: the design, construction and operation of a low-cost natural guide star adaptive optics system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Severson, Scott A.; Choi, Philip I.; Badham, Katherine E.; Bolger, Dalton; Contreras, Daniel S.; Gilbreth, Blaine N.; Guerrero, Christian; Littleton, Erik; Long, Joseph; McGonigle, Lorcan P.; Morrison, William A.; Ortega, Fernando; Rudy, Alex R.; Wong, Jonathan R.; Spjut, Erik; Baranec, Christoph; Riddle, Reed

2014-07-01

We present the instrument design and first light observations of KAPAO, a natural guide star adaptive optics (AO) system for the Pomona College Table Mountain Observatory (TMO) 1-meter telescope. The KAPAO system has dual science channels with visible and near-infrared cameras, a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, and a commercially available 140-actuator MEMS deformable mirror. The pupil relays are two pairs of custom off-axis parabolas and the control system is based on a version of the Robo-AO control software. The AO system and telescope are remotely operable, and KAPAO is designed to share the Cassegrain focus with the existing TMO polarimeter. We discuss the extensive integration of undergraduate students in the program including the multiple senior theses/capstones and summer assistantships amongst our partner institutions. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0960343.

An adaptive optics package designed for astronomical use with a laser guide star tuned to an absorption line of atomic sodium

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Salmon, J.T.; Avicola, K.; Brase, J.M.

1994-04-11

We present the design and implementation of a very compact adaptive optic system that senses the return light from a sodium guide-star and controls a deformable mirror and a pointing mirror to compensate atmospheric perturbations in the wavefront. The deformable mirror has 19 electrostrictive actuators and triangular subapertures. The wavefront sensor is a Hartmann sensor with lenslets on triangular centers. The high-bandwidth steering mirror assembly incorporates an analog controller that samples the tilt with an avalanche photodiode quad cell. An {line_integral}/25 imaging leg focuses the light into a science camera that can either obtain long-exposure images or speckle data. Inmore » laboratory tests overall Strehl ratios were improved by a factor of 3 when a mylar sheet was used as an aberrator. The crossover frequency at unity gain is 30 Hz.« less

A conceptual scheme for cophasing across gaps in segmented pupils with a laser guide star Fizeau interferometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tuthill, Peter

2016-08-01

Finding and maintaining an accurate cophasing solution for the large primary mirrors which comprise the coming generation of Extremely Large Telescopes has required a significant technological development effort that is still ongoing. Mirrors based on an assembly of a few large segments, such as the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT - under construction) and the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT - operational) face a particular challenge: elements must be cophased across a gaps ranging from tens of centimeters to meters. Although it is widely believed that laser guide stars are not useful for this specific application, this paper advances a new concept that challenges this orthodoxy. By projecting a Fizeau interference pattern into the sky, and analyzing the form of the backscattered image, it is shown that at least in principle it is possible to cophase across arbitrary gaps.

Research on the compensation of laser launch optics to improve the performance of the LGS spot.

PubMed

Liu, Jie; Wang, Jianli; Wang, Yuning; Tian, Donghe; Zheng, Quan; Lin, Xudong; Wang, Liang; Yang, Qingyun

2018-02-01

To improve the beam quality of the uplink laser, a 37 channel piezo-ceramic deformable mirror was inserted into the laser launch optics to compensate the static aberrations. An interferometer was used as the calibration light source as well as the wavefront sensor to perform closed-loop correction for the moment. About 0.38λ root mean square (rms) aberrations, including the deformable mirror's initial figure error, were compensated, and the residual error was less than 0.07λ rms. Field observations with a 2 m optical telescope demonstrated that the peak intensity value of the laser guide star (LGS) spot increased from 5650 to 7658, and the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) size reduced from 4.07 arcseconds to 3.52 arcseconds. With the compensation, an improved guide star spot can be obtained, which is crucial for the adaptive optics systems of ground-based large telescopes.

The new generation polestar n20 for conventional neurosurgical operating rooms: a preliminary report.

PubMed

Ntoukas, Vasileios; Krishnan, Rene; Seifert, Volker

2008-03-01

The objective of this work is to present the preliminary clinical experience we acquired in using the new PoleStar generation, N20 (Medtronic Navigation, Louisville, CO), in a modified conventional operating room. PoleStar N20 is a 0.15-T, intraoperative scanner combined with both an integrated optical and a magnetic resonance imaging tracking scanner. All standard imaging modes, such as T1, T2, and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery, are available through the magnet. To shield the operating room from radiofrequency interference, a Faraday cage was constructed using a conductive metal mesh installed under the wall decoration. Sixty-one patients, most of whom had gliomas or pituitary adenomas, underwent intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging in our clinic. The extent of resection and the surgical consequences of intraoperative imaging were analyzed. The image quality for T1-weighted, gadolinium-enhanced tumors was sufficiently good to enable us to evaluate the extent of tumor resection, whereas the T2-weighted image quality must be improved. New technologies, such as high-temperature superconductive coils and ultra-small super-paramagnetic iron particles, e.g., ferumoxtran-10, can lead to a dramatic improvement in image quality, heralding the commencement of the widespread use of intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging. The acquisition of the PoleStar N20 opened new horizons in the treatment of our patients. This novel, compact, intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging scanner can be installed in a standard operating room without major modifications. Standard surgical instruments can be used. Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging provided valuable information that allowed intraoperative modification of the surgical strategy.

RE-Powering’s Electronic Decision Tree

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Developed by US EPA's RE-Powering America's Land Initiative, the RE-Powering Decision Trees tool guides interested parties through a process to screen sites for their suitability for solar photovoltaics or wind installations

Simple Activities for Powerful Impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

LaConte, K.; Shupla, C. B.; Dusenbery, P.; Harold, J. B.; Holland, A.

2016-12-01

STEM education is having a transformational impact on libraries across the country. The STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net) provides free Science-Technology Activities & Resources that are helping libraries to engage their communities in STEM learning experiences. Hear the results of a national 2015 survey of library and STEM professionals and learn what STEM programming is currently in place in public libraries and how libraries approach and implement STEM programs. Experience hands-on space science activities that are being used in library programs with multiple age groups. Through these hands-on activities, learners explore the nature of science and employ science and engineering practices, including developing and using models, planning and carrying out investigations, and engaging in argument from evidence (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Learn how STAR_Net can help you print (free!) mini-exhibits and educator guides. Join STAR_Net's online community and access STEM resources and webinars to work with libraries in your local community.

KSC-2009-1691

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-02-18

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – At the Astrotech payload processing facility in Titusville, Fla., workers help guide the canister segment for NASA's Kepler spacecraft as it is lifted toward workers above. The segment will be added to the stack around Kepler. The "canning" provides protection during the spacecraft's transport to the pad. The liftoff of Kepler aboard a Delta II rocket is currently targeted for 10:48 p.m. EST March 5 from Pad 17-B. Kepler is designed to survey more than 100,000 stars in our galaxy to determine the number of sun-like stars that have Earth-size and larger planets, including those that lie in a star's "habitable zone," a region where liquid water, and perhaps life, could exist. If these Earth-size worlds do exist around stars like our sun, Kepler is expected to be the first to find them and the first to measure how common they are. Photo credit: NASA/Troy Cryder

MagAO: Status and on-sky performance of the Magellan adaptive optics system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morzinski, Katie M.; Close, Laird M.; Males, Jared R.; Kopon, Derek; Hinz, Phil M.; Esposito, Simone; Riccardi, Armando; Puglisi, Alfio; Pinna, Enrico; Briguglio, Runa; Xompero, Marco; Quirós-Pacheco, Fernando; Bailey, Vanessa; Follette, Katherine B.; Rodigas, T. J.; Wu, Ya-Lin; Arcidiacono, Carmelo; Argomedo, Javier; Busoni, Lorenzo; Hare, Tyson; Uomoto, Alan; Weinberger, Alycia

2014-07-01

MagAO is the new adaptive optics system with visible-light and infrared science cameras, located on the 6.5-m Magellan "Clay" telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. The instrument locks on natural guide stars (NGS) from 0th to 16th R-band magnitude, measures turbulence with a modulating pyramid wavefront sensor binnable from 28×28 to 7×7 subapertures, and uses a 585-actuator adaptive secondary mirror (ASM) to provide at wavefronts to the two science cameras. MagAO is a mutated clone of the similar AO systems at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) at Mt. Graham, Arizona. The high-level AO loop controls up to 378 modes and operates at frame rates up to 1000 Hz. The instrument has two science cameras: VisAO operating from 0.5-1μm and Clio2 operating from 1-5 μm. MagAO was installed in 2012 and successfully completed two commissioning runs in 2012-2013. In April 2014 we had our first science run that was open to the general Magellan community. Observers from Arizona, Carnegie, Australia, Harvard, MIT, Michigan, and Chile took observations in collaboration with the MagAO instrument team. Here we describe the MagAO instrument, describe our on-sky performance, and report our status as of summer 2014.

Design and construction of a multiple beam laser projector and dynamically refocused wavefront sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stalcup, Thomas Eugene, Jr.

Adaptive optics using natural guide stars can produce images of amazing quality, but is limited to a small fraction of the sky due to the need for a relatively bright guidestar. Adaptive optics systems using a laser generated artificial reference can be used over a majority of the sky, but these systems have some attendant problems. These problems can be reduced by increasing the altitude of the laser return, and indeed a simple, single laser source focused at an altitude of 95 km on a layer of atmospheric sodium performs well for the current generation of 8--10 m telescopes. For future giant telescopes in the 20--30 m class, however, the errors due to incorrect atmospheric sampling and spot elongation will prohibit such a simple system from working. The system presented in this dissertation provides a solution to these problems. Not only does it provide the 6.5m MMT with a relatively inexpensive laser guide star system with unique capabilities, it allows research into solving many of the problems faced by laser guide star systems on future giant telescopes. The MMT laser guidestar system projects a constellation of five doubled Nd:YAG laser beams focused at a mean height of 25 km, with a dynamic refocus system that corrects for spot elongation and allows integrating the return from a 10 km long range gate. It has produced seeing limited spot sizes in ˜1 arcsecond seeing conditions, and has enabled the first on-sky results of Ground Layer Adaptive Optics (GLAO).

STS116-S-001

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-07-01

STS116-S-001 (July 2006) --- The STS-116 patch design signifies the continuing assembly of the International Space Station (ISS). The primary mission objective is to deliver and install the P5 truss element. The P5 installation will be conducted during the first of three planned spacewalks, and will involve use of both the shuttle and station robotic arms. The remainder of the mission will include a major reconfiguration and activation of the ISS electrical and thermal control systems, as well as delivery of Zvezda Service Module debris panels, which will increase ISS protection from potential impacts of micro-meteorites and orbital debris. In addition, a single expedition crewmember will launch on STS-116 to remain onboard the station, replacing an expedition crew member that will fly home with the shuttle crew. The crew patch depicts the space shuttle rising above the Earth and ISS. The United States and Swedish flags trail the orbiter, depicting the international composition of the STS-116 crew. The seven stars of the constellation Ursa Major are used to provide direction to the North Star, which is superimposed over the installation location of the P5 truss on ISS. The NASA insignia design for space shuttle flights is reserved for use by the astronauts and for other official use as the NASA Administrator may authorize. Public availability has been approved only in the forms of illustrations by the various news media. When and if there is any change in this policy, which is not anticipated, the change will be publicly announced. Photo credit: NASA

KSC-06pd2382

NASA Image and Video Library

2006-07-05

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston, Texas -- STS116-S-001 (July 2006) - The STS-116 patch design signifies the continuing assembly of the International Space Station (ISS). The primary mission objective is to deliver and install the P5 truss element. The P5 installation will be conducted during the first of three planned spacewalks, and will involve use of both the shuttle and station robotic arms. The remainder of the mission will include a major reconfiguration and activation of the ISS electrical and thermal control systems, as well as delivery of Zvezda Service Module debris panels, which will increase ISS protection from potential impacts of micro-meteorites and orbital debris. In addition, a single expedition crew member will launch on STS-116 to remain onboard the station, replacing an expedition crew member who will fly home with the shuttle crew. The crew patch depicts the space shuttle rising above the Earth and ISS. The United States and Swedish flags trail the orbiter, depicting the international composition of the STS-116 crew. The seven stars of the constellation Ursa Major are used to provide direction to the North Star, which is superimposed over the installation location of the P5 truss on ISS. The NASA insignia design for space shuttle space flights is reserved for use by the astronauts and other official use as the NASA Administrator may authorize. Public availability has been approved only in the form of illustrations by the various news media. When and if there is any change in this policy, which is not anticipated, such will be publicly announced.

STS-112 insignia

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-03-01

STS112-S-001 (March 2002) --- The STS-112 emblem symbolizes the ninth assembly mission (9A) to the International Space Station (ISS), a flight which is designed to deliver the Starboard 1 (S1) truss segment. The 30,000 pound truss segment will be lifted to orbit in the payload bay of the space shuttle Atlantis and installed using the ISS robotic arm. Three spacewalks will then be carried out to complete connections between the truss and ISS. Future missions will extend the truss structure to a span of over 350 feet so that it can support the solar arrays and radiators which provide the electrical power and cooling for ISS. The STS-112 emblem depicts ISS from the viewpoint of a departing shuttle, with the installed S1 truss segment outlined in red. A gold trail represents a portion of the shuttle rendezvous trajectory. Where the trajectory meets ISS, a nine-pointed star represents the combined on-orbit team of six shuttle and three ISS crew members who together will complete the S1 truss installation. The trajectory continues beyond the ISS, ending in a six-pointed star representing the Atlantis and the STS-112 crew. The NASA insignia design for space shuttle flights is reserved for use by the astronauts and for other official use as the NASA Administrator may authorize. Public availability has been approved only in the forms of illustrations by the various news media. When and if there is any change in this policy, which is not anticipated, the change will be publicly announced. Photo credit: NASA

KSC-02pp0487

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-03-01

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON, TEXAS - STS-112 CREW INSIGNIA --- The STS-112 emblem symbolizes the ninth assembly mission (9A) to the International Space Station (ISS), a flight which is designed to deliver the Starboard 1 (S1) truss segment. The 30,000 pound truss segment will be lifted to orbit in the payload bay of the Space Shuttle Atlantis and installed using the ISS robotic arm. Three space walks will then be carried out to complete connections between the truss and ISS. Future missions will extend the truss structure to a span of over 350 feet so that it can support the solar arrays and radiators which provide the electrical power and cooling for ISS. The STS-112 emblem depicts ISS from the viewpoint of a departing shuttle, with the installed S1 truss segment outlined in red. A gold trail represents a portion of the Shuttle rendezvous trajectory. Where the trajectory meets ISS, a nine-pointed star represents the combined on-orbit team of six shuttle and three ISS crew members who together will complete the S1 truss installation. The trajectory continues beyond the ISS, ending in a six-pointed star representing the Atlantis and the STS-112 crew. The NASA insignia design for Shuttle flights is reserved for use by the astronauts and for other official use as the NASA Administrator may authorize. Public availability has been approved only in the forms of illustrations by the various news media. When and if there is any change in this policy, which is not anticipated, the change will be publicly announced

Design Considerations for the Installation of an Iodine (I2) Cell onto TRES

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia-Mejia, Juliana

2017-01-01

The radial velocity (RV) method utilizes the reflex motion of a target star to predict the presence of one or multiple exoplanets. However, the disparity in mass between planet and host star often results in RV oscillations below the precision of most modern spectrographs. Such is the case of TRES, the Tillinghast Reflector Echelle Spectrograph located in the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, with a radial velocity (RV) precision of ~ 20 m s-1, dominated by instrumental effects. Since 1992, the iodine cell technique, presented in Butler et al.(1992) has become widely used for the reduction of RV measurement errors. Here, we describe the beginning stages in the installation of one such cell onto TRES. After traveling to the telescope site to perform the first fitting of the iodine stage, I designed, built and fitted the first prototype of an improved thermal insulation system for the front end of the spectrograph, where the cell will be mounted. Here I present such a design, as well as a detailed description of the current state of the project. We expect the iodine cell to be fully functional in approximately 1 year. Once the cell is installed, we expect errors in radial velocity measurements to decrease by an order of magnitude from the aforementioned 20 m s-1. This increase in precision will come with an increase in stability of radial velocity measurements, allowing TRES to perform in-house spectroscopy of more nearby bright targets and high-cadence exoplanet follow-up.

Model Analyst’s Toolkit User Guide, Version 7.1.0

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-08-01

Help > About)  Environment details ( operating system )  metronome.log file, located in your MAT 7.1.0 installation folder  Any log file that...requirements to run the Model Analyst’s Toolkit:  Windows XP operating system (or higher) with Service Pack 2 and all critical Windows updates installed...application icon on your desktop  Create a Quick Launch icon – Creates a MAT application icon on the taskbar for operating systems released

Bringing the Visible Universe into Focus with Robo-AO

PubMed Central

Baranec, Christoph; Riddle, Reed; Law, Nicholas M.; Ramaprakash, A.N.; Tendulkar, Shriharsh P.; Bui, Khanh; Burse, Mahesh P.; Chordia, Pravin; Das, Hillol K.; Davis, Jack T.C.; Dekany, Richard G.; Kasliwal, Mansi M.; Kulkarni, Shrinivas R.; Morton, Timothy D.; Ofek, Eran O.; Punnadi, Sujit

2013-01-01

The angular resolution of ground-based optical telescopes is limited by the degrading effects of the turbulent atmosphere. In the absence of an atmosphere, the angular resolution of a typical telescope is limited only by diffraction, i.e., the wavelength of interest, λ, divided by the size of its primary mirror's aperture, D. For example, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), with a 2.4-m primary mirror, has an angular resolution at visible wavelengths of ~0.04 arc seconds. The atmosphere is composed of air at slightly different temperatures, and therefore different indices of refraction, constantly mixing. Light waves are bent as they pass through the inhomogeneous atmosphere. When a telescope on the ground focuses these light waves, instantaneous images appear fragmented, changing as a function of time. As a result, long-exposure images acquired using ground-based telescopes - even telescopes with four times the diameter of HST - appear blurry and have an angular resolution of roughly 0.5 to 1.5 arc seconds at best. Astronomical adaptive-optics systems compensate for the effects of atmospheric turbulence. First, the shape of the incoming non-planar wave is determined using measurements of a nearby bright star by a wavefront sensor. Next, an element in the optical system, such as a deformable mirror, is commanded to correct the shape of the incoming light wave. Additional corrections are made at a rate sufficient to keep up with the dynamically changing atmosphere through which the telescope looks, ultimately producing diffraction-limited images. The fidelity of the wavefront sensor measurement is based upon how well the incoming light is spatially and temporally sampled1. Finer sampling requires brighter reference objects. While the brightest stars can serve as reference objects for imaging targets from several to tens of arc seconds away in the best conditions, most interesting astronomical targets do not have sufficiently bright stars nearby. One solution is to focus a high-power laser beam in the direction of the astronomical target to create an artificial reference of known shape, also known as a 'laser guide star'. The Robo-AO laser adaptive optics system2,3 employs a 10-W ultraviolet laser focused at a distance of 10 km to generate a laser guide star. Wavefront sensor measurements of the laser guide star drive the adaptive optics correction resulting in diffraction-limited images that have an angular resolution of ~0.1 arc seconds on a 1.5-m telescope. PMID:23426078

Bringing the visible universe into focus with Robo-AO.

PubMed

Baranec, Christoph; Riddle, Reed; Law, Nicholas M; Ramaprakash, A N; Tendulkar, Shriharsh P; Bui, Khanh; Burse, Mahesh P; Chordia, Pravin; Das, Hillol K; Davis, Jack T C; Dekany, Richard G; Kasliwal, Mansi M; Kulkarni, Shrinivas R; Morton, Timothy D; Ofek, Eran O; Punnadi, Sujit

2013-02-12

The angular resolution of ground-based optical telescopes is limited by the degrading effects of the turbulent atmosphere. In the absence of an atmosphere, the angular resolution of a typical telescope is limited only by diffraction, i.e., the wavelength of interest, λ, divided by the size of its primary mirror's aperture, D. For example, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), with a 2.4-m primary mirror, has an angular resolution at visible wavelengths of ~0.04 arc seconds. The atmosphere is composed of air at slightly different temperatures, and therefore different indices of refraction, constantly mixing. Light waves are bent as they pass through the inhomogeneous atmosphere. When a telescope on the ground focuses these light waves, instantaneous images appear fragmented, changing as a function of time. As a result, long-exposure images acquired using ground-based telescopes--even telescopes with four times the diameter of HST--appear blurry and have an angular resolution of roughly 0.5 to 1.5 arc seconds at best. Astronomical adaptive-optics systems compensate for the effects of atmospheric turbulence. First, the shape of the incoming non-planar wave is determined using measurements of a nearby bright star by a wavefront sensor. Next, an element in the optical system, such as a deformable mirror, is commanded to correct the shape of the incoming light wave. Additional corrections are made at a rate sufficient to keep up with the dynamically changing atmosphere through which the telescope looks, ultimately producing diffraction-limited images. The fidelity of the wavefront sensor measurement is based upon how well the incoming light is spatially and temporally sampled. Finer sampling requires brighter reference objects. While the brightest stars can serve as reference objects for imaging targets from several to tens of arc seconds away in the best conditions, most interesting astronomical targets do not have sufficiently bright stars nearby. One solution is to focus a high-power laser beam in the direction of the astronomical target to create an artificial reference of known shape, also known as a 'laser guide star'. The Robo-AO laser adaptive optics system, employs a 10-W ultraviolet laser focused at a distance of 10 km to generate a laser guide star. Wavefront sensor measurements of the laser guide star drive the adaptive optics correction resulting in diffraction-limited images that have an angular resolution of ~0.1 arc seconds on a 1.5-m telescope.

Traveling through Time: The Forum Guide to Longitudinal Data Systems. Book Four of Four: Advanced LDS Usage. NFES 2011-802

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Forum on Education Statistics, 2011

2011-01-01

This document is the fourth and final installment of this Forum series of guides on longitudinal data systems (LDS). One goal of the National Forum on Education Statistics (the Forum) is to improve the quality of education data gathered for use by policymakers and program decisionmakers. An approach to furthering this goal has been to pool the…

76 FR 16017 - Withdrawal of Regulatory Guide 8.5

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-22

...) Standard N2.3-1979 ``Immediate Evacuation Signal for Use in Industrial Installations,'' published September... Branch, Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. [FR Doc. 2011-6665 Filed 3-21-11...

Knowing our neighbors: Fundamental properties of nearby stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bartlett, Jennifer Lynn

The stars within 25 parsecs (pc) of our Sun constitute the one stellar sample that we aspire to know thoroughly, but we still have not even identified all of the stars within 10 pc. We have still less knowledge of the nearby substellar population, especially the planets. The four studies described herein expand our knowledge of the solar neighborhood. First, a re-analysis of the Leander McCormick Observatory photographic plates of Barnard's Star failed to detect any planets orbiting it, and this study would have detected planets with 2.2 Jupiter masses or greater. In addition, its parallax, proper motion, and secular acceleration were measured with results comparable with those from more modern equipment. Second, increased information about nearby planets was sought through time series analyses of astrometric residuals to stars observed by the University of Virginia Southern Parallax Program. Of these, LHS 288 displays an intriguing signal, which might be caused by a very low mass companion. Twelve other stars demonstrate no astrometric perturbations. While astrometry could reveal the presence of unseen companions, distances from trigonometric parallaxes define the solar neighborhood and identify its inhabitants. Preliminary parallaxes for 43 potential nearby stars being observed by the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Parallax Investigation (CTIOPI) confirmed 28 stars as being within 25 pc, including three stars---LP 991-84, LHS 6167, and LP 876-10---that probably lie within 10 pc. Three more stars lie near the 25-pc boundary and their final parallaxes may qualify them as nearby. One recently established neighbor, LP 869-26, is a potential binary. For many stars in this third sample, preliminary photometry ( V, R, and I bands), spectroscopy, and proper motions are also available. Despite the continuing importance of ground-based parallax measurements, few active programs remain. The final project tested the recently installed infrared camera on the 31-inch (0.8-meter) telescope at Fan Mountain Observatory for astrometric stability. A parallax program would be feasible there and could provide much needed distances for brown dwarfs and very low mass stars. Through this and similar efforts, we are establishing the foundations for understanding our Milky Way Galaxy, including its component stars and populations.

ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board /ACLASS

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-28

unclassified c. THIS PAGE unclassified Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8-98) Prescribed by ANSI Std Z39-18  Laboratories – ISO / IEC 17025  Inspection...Bodies – ISO / IEC 17020  RMPs – ISO Guide 34 (Reference Materials)  PT Providers – ISO 17043  Product Certifiers – ISO Guide 65  Government...Programs: DoD ELAP, EPA Energy Star, CPSC Toy Safety, NRC, NIST IPV6, NLLAP, NEFAP  TRAINING Programs  Certification Bodies – ISO / IEC 17021

Soldier Quality of Life (Operational) and Readiness at Contingency Base Camps: Insights From Qualitative Interviews

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-13

camps and Soldier/small unit readiness to guide the development of a quantitative readiness survey . • During structured interviews, 31 Soldiers...camps and Soldier/small unit readiness to guide the development of a quantitative readiness survey . 11UNCLASSIFIED Click to hear quote Methods...We were rock stars.” 60UNCLASSIFIED • These data are driving the selection of attributes for a future quantitative survey of the link between QoL

GMTIFS: the adaptive optics beam steering mirror for the GMT integral-field spectrograph

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davies, J.; Bloxham, G.; Boz, R.; Bundy, D.; Espeland, B.; Fordham, B.; Hart, J.; Herrald, N.; Nielsen, J.; Sharp, R.; Vaccarella, A.; Vest, C.; Young, P. J.

2016-07-01

To achieve the high adaptive optics sky coverage necessary to allow the GMT Integral-Field Spectrograph (GMTIFS) to access key scientific targets, the on-instrument adaptive-optics wavefront-sensing (OIWFS) system must patrol the full 180 arcsecond diameter guide field passed to the instrument. The OIWFS uses a diffraction limited guide star as the fundamental pointing reference for the instrument. During an observation the offset between the science target and the guide star will change due to sources such as flexure, differential refraction and non-sidereal tracking rates. GMTIFS uses a beam steering mirror to set the initial offset between science target and guide star and also to correct for changes in offset. In order to reduce image motion from beam steering errors to those comparable to the AO system in the most stringent case, the beam steering mirror is set a requirement of less than 1 milliarcsecond RMS. This corresponds to a dynamic range for both actuators and sensors of better than 1/180,000. The GMTIFS beam steering mirror uses piezo-walk actuators and a combination of eddy current sensors and interferometric sensors to achieve this dynamic range and control. While the sensors are rated for cryogenic operation, the actuators are not. We report on the results of prototype testing of single actuators, with the sensors, on the bench and in a cryogenic environment. Specific failures of the system are explained and suspected reasons for them. A modified test jig is used to investigate the option of heating the actuator and we report the improved results. In addition to individual component testing, we built and tested a complete beam steering mirror assembly. Testing was conducted with a point source microscope, however controlling environmental conditions to less than 1 micron was challenging. The assembly testing investigated acquisition accuracy and if there was any un-sensed hysteresis in the system. Finally we present the revised beam steering mirror design based on the outcomes and lessons learnt from this prototyping.

High-charge and multiple-star vortex coronagraphy from stacked vector vortex phase masks.

PubMed

Aleksanyan, Artur; Brasselet, Etienne

2018-02-01

Optical vortex phase masks are now installed at many ground-based large telescopes for high-contrast astronomical imaging. To date, such instrumental advances have been restricted to the use of helical phase masks of the lowest even order, while future giant telescopes will require high-order masks. Here we propose a single-stage on-axis scheme to create high-order vortex coronagraphs based on second-order vortex phase masks. By extending our approach to an off-axis design, we also explore the implementation of multiple-star vortex coronagraphy. An experimental laboratory demonstration is reported and supported by numerical simulations. These results offer a practical roadmap to the development of future coronagraphic tools with enhanced performances.

KSC01kodi049

NASA Image and Video Library

2001-06-19

KODIAK ISLAND, Alaska -- Orbis 21D Equipment Section Boost Motor, the second stage of the Athena 1 launch vehicle, awaits the installation of the Orbit Adjust Model (OAM), which navigates the payloads into the correct orbit, at the launch pad at Kodiak Island, Alaska, as preparations to launch Kodiak Star proceed. The first orbital launch to take place from Alaska's Kodiak Launch Complex, Kodiak Star is scheduled to lift off on a Lockheed Martin Athena I launch vehicle on Sept. 17 during a two-hour window that extends from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. ADT. The payloads aboard include the Starshine 3, sponsored by NASA, and the PICOSat, PCSat and Sapphire, sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program.

The future of image-guided radiotherapy will be MR guided

PubMed Central

Wen, Zhifei; Sadagopan, Ramaswamy; Wang, Jihong; Ibbott, Geoffrey S

2017-01-01

Advances in image-guided radiotherapy (RT) have allowed for dose escalation and more precise radiation treatment delivery. Each decade brings new imaging technologies to help improve RT patient setup. Currently, the most frequently used method of three-dimensional pre-treatment image verification is performed with cone beam CT. However, more recent developments have provided RT with the ability to have on-board MRI coupled to the teleradiotherapy unit. This latest tool for treating cancer is known as MR-guided RT. Several varieties of these units have been designed and installed in centres across the globe. Their prevalence, history, advantages and disadvantages are discussed in this review article. In preparation for the next generation of image-guided RT, this review also covers where MR-guided RT might be heading in the near future. PMID:28256898

Performance of the STAR Event Plane Detector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ewigleben, Justin; Justin Ewigleben Collaboration

2017-09-01

The Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider has shown hints of a critical point and first order phase transition at the BES energies. Key measurements for locating the critical point and determining the first order phase transition are limited by poor event plane resolution, limited statistics and a TPC-only centrality determination. A new event plane and collision centrality detector (EPD) is planned to replace the existing detector, the Beam-Beam Counter (BBC), with higher granularity and acceptance. The design of the EPD consists of two scintillator discs at z = +/- 3.75m from the center of STAR, covering 2.2 < η < 5.1. One quarter of a single disc was installed in STAR for the 2017 run for commissioning. In this talk we will discuss the detector performance during this commissioning run in both proton-proton collisions at √{ s = 510 } GeV and Au-Au collisions at √{sNN = 54.4 } GeV. NSF Grant 1614474.

Spectroscopic monitoring of bright A-F type candidate hybrid stars discovered by the Kepler mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lampens, Patricia; Frémat, Y.; Vermeylen, Lore; De Cat, Peter; Dumortier, Louis; Sódor, Ádám; Sharka, Marek; Bognár, Zsófia

2018-04-01

We report on a study of 250 optical spectra for 50 bright A/F-type candidate hybrid pulsating stars from the Kepler field. Most of the spectra have been collected with the high-resolution spectrograph HERMES attached to the Mercator telescope, La Palma. We determined the radial velocities (RVs), projected rotational velocities, fundamental atmospheric parameters and provide a classification based on the appearance of the cross-correlation profiles and the behaviour of the RVs with time in order to find true hybrid pulsators. Additionally, we also detected new spectroscopic binary and multiple systems in our sample and determined the fraction of spectroscopic systems. In order to be able to extend this investigation to the fainter A-F type candidate hybrid stars, various high-quality spectra collected with 3-4 m sized telescopes suitably equipped with a high-resolution spectrograph and furthermore located in the Northern hemisphere would be ideal. This programme could be done using the new instruments installed at the Devasthal Observatory.

Implementation of the National Intelligent Transportation Systems Program : 1996 report to Congress

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2003-01-01

This pocket guide is intended for use by state and local transportation officials, manufacturing and engineering organizations, university transportation professionals, and others responsible for the design, selection, installation, and maintenance o...

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT): Version 2d: Installation Guide

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-09-01

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) is a software system that models aircraft performance in space and time to estimate fuel consumption, emissions, noise, and air quality consequences. AEDT facilitates environmental review activities required ...

Virtual Exchange Services and Shared CROMERR Services

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Define the objectives, leadership, and membership of an IPT that will guide the requirements definition for a cloud-based Node installation and describe the anticipated architecture and example scenario implementations available to the EN community

Missouri commercial vehicle operations : state business plan

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-05-15

This business plan is intended to assist this state in improving its commercial vehicle operation regulation, guide the deployment and installation of intelligent transportation systems and to implement these systems in an efficient and cost effectiv...

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Hogg 16 peculiar stars (Cariddi+, 2018)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cariddi, S.; Azatyan, N. M.; Kurfurst, P.; Stofanova, L.; Netopil, M.; Paunzen, E.; Pintado, O. I.; Aidelman, Y. J.

2017-07-01

The photometric observations of Hogg 16 were performed on 2004 June 15, with the EFOSC2 instrument, installed on the 3.6m telescope at ESO - La Silla within the program 073.C-0144(A), and the target field was centred on the main concentration of stars in the cluster area (J2000 RA=13:29:18, DE=-61:12:00). The field-of-view is about 5.2'x5.2', and the 2x2 binning mode results in a resolution of 0.31"/pixel. Thus, we cover almost the complete cluster area if adopting a diameter of 6' as listed in the updated open cluster catalogue by Dias et al. (2002, version 3.5, Cat. B/ocl). We used a Δa filter set with the following characteristics: g1 (λc=5007Å, FWHM=126Å, TP=78%), g2 (5199, 95, 68), and y (5466, 108, 70). We have investigated 150 stars in the area of the young open cluster Hogg 16 using the Delta-a photometric system. We have performed a membership analysis and identified several chemically peculiar cluster stars. (1 data file).

Stellar activity for every TESS star in the Southern sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howard, Ward S.; Law, Nicholas; Fors, Octavi; Corbett, Henry T.; Ratzloff, Jeff; del Ser, Daniel

2018-01-01

Although TESS will search for Earths around more than 200,000 nearby stars, the life-impacting superflare occurrence of these stars remains poorly characterized. We monitor long-term stellar flare occurrence for every TESS star in the accessible sky at 2-minute cadence with the CTIO-based Evryscope, a combination of twenty-four telescopes, together giving instantaneous sky coverage of 8000 square degrees. In collaboration with Owens Valley Long Wavelength Array (LWA) all-sky monitoring, Evryscope also provides optical counterparts to radio flare, CME, and exoplanet-magnetosphere stellar activity searches. A Northern Evryscope will be installed at Mount Laguna Observatory, CA in collaboration with SDSU later this year, enabling stellar activity characterization for the full TESS target list and both continuous viewing zones, as well as providing 100% overlap with LWA radio activity. Targets of interest (e.g. Proxima Cen, TRAPPIST-1) are given special focus. We are currently sensitive to stellar activity down to 1% precision at g' ~ 10 and about 0.2 of a magnitude at g' ~ 15. With 2-minute cadence and a projected 5-year timeline, with 2+ years already recorded, we present preliminary results from an activity characterization of every Southern TESS target.

Imaging and Modeling Nearby Stellar Systems through Infrared Interferometers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Che, Xiao; Monnier, J. D.; Ten Brummelaar, T.; Sturmann, L.; Millan-Gabet, R.; Baron, F.; Kraus, S.; Zhao, M.; CHARA

2014-01-01

Long-baseline infrared interferometers with sub-milliarcsecond angular resolution can now resolve photospheric features and the circumstellar environments of nearby massive stars. Closure phase measurements have made model-independent imaging possible. During the thesis, I have expanded Michigan Infrared Combiner (MIRC) from a 4-beam combiner to a 6-beam combiner to improve the (u,v) coverage, and installed Photometric Channels system to reduce the RMS of data by a factor of 3. I am also in charge of the Wavefront Sensor of the CHARA Adaptive Optics project to increase the sensitivity of the telescope array to enlarge the observable Young Stellar Objects (YSOs). My scientific research has focused on using mainly MIRC at CHARA to model and image rapidly rotating stars. The results are crucial for testing the next generation of stellar models that incorporate evolution of internal angular momentum. Observations of Be stars with MIRC have resolved the innermost parts of the disks, allowing us to study the evolution of the disks and star-disk interactions. I have also adopted a semi-analytical disk model to constrain Mid-InfraRed (MIR) disks of YSOs using interferometric and spectroscopic data.

User's Guide for RESRAD-OFFSITE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gnanapragasam, E.; Yu, C.

2015-04-01

The RESRAD-OFFSITE code can be used to model the radiological dose or risk to an offsite receptor. This User’s Guide for RESRAD-OFFSITE Version 3.1 is an update of the User’s Guide for RESRAD-OFFSITE Version 2 contained in the Appendix A of the User’s Manual for RESRAD-OFFSITE Version 2 (ANL/EVS/TM/07-1, DOE/HS-0005, NUREG/CR-6937). This user’s guide presents the basic information necessary to use Version 3.1 of the code. It also points to the help file and other documents that provide more detailed information about the inputs, the input forms and features/tools in the code; two of the features (overriding the source termmore » and computing area factors) are discussed in the appendices to this guide. Section 2 describes how to download and install the code and then verify the installation of the code. Section 3 shows ways to navigate through the input screens to simulate various exposure scenarios and to view the results in graphics and text reports. Section 4 has screen shots of each input form in the code and provides basic information about each parameter to increase the user’s understanding of the code. Section 5 outlines the contents of all the text reports and the graphical output. It also describes the commands in the two output viewers. Section 6 deals with the probabilistic and sensitivity analysis tools available in the code. Section 7 details the various ways of obtaining help in the code.« less

Chemical Evolution and History of Star Formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gustafsson, Bengt

1995-07-01

Large scale processes controlling star formation and nucleosynthesis are fundamental but poorly understood. This is especially true for external galaxies. A detailed study of individual main sequence stars in the LMC Bar is proposed. The LMC is close enough to allow this, has considerable spread in stellar ages and a structure permitting identification of stellar populations and their structural features. The Bar presumably plays a dominant role in the chemical and dynamical evolution of the galaxy. Our knowledge is, at best, based on educated guesses. Still, the major population of the Bar is quite old, and many member stars are relatively evolved. The Bar seems to contain stars similar to those of Intermediate to Extreme Pop II in the Galaxy. We want to study the history of star formation, chemical evolution and initial mass function of the population dominating the Bar. We will use field stars close to the turn off point in the HR diagram. From earlier studies, we know that 250-500 such stars are available for uvby photometry in the PC field. We aim at an accuracy of 0.1 -0.2 dex in Me/H and 25% or better in relative ages. This requires an accuracy of about 0.02 mag in the uvby indices, which can be reached, taking into account errors in calibration, flat fielding, guiding and problems due to crowding. For a study of the luminosity function fainter stars will be included as well. Calibration fields are available in Omega Cen and M 67.

Documentation Library Application (DLA) Version 2.0.0.1, User Guide

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-08

document DIScard chotnoes and undo <ht:dc-oot. View AN Library ~IR8librMY ~ooc~~.tiOn Llbt~ry View W AA Library View ~MI Libr -ary...Windows XP and access to the DLA SQL Server database. To install the DLA, navigate to N:\\Dept 161\\3 - PRODUCTS\\ Software Installation...Health Research Center. You should see the DLA menu item listed under the NHRC programs there. Contact the DLA software POC if you encounter any

Flate-plate photovoltaic power systems handbook for Federal agencies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cochrane, E. H.; Lawson, A. C.; Savage, C. H.

1984-01-01

The primary purpose is to provide a tool for personnel in Federal agencies to evaluate the viability of potential photovoltaic applications. A second objective is to provide descriptions of various photovoltaic systems installed by different Federal agencies under the Federal Photovoltaic Utilization Program so that other agencies may consider similar applications. A third objective is to share lessons learned to enable more effective procurement, design, installation, and operation of future photovoltaic systems. The intent is not to provide a complete handbook, but rather to provide a guide for Federal agency personnel with additional information incorporated by references. The steps to be followed in selecting, procuring, and installing a photovoltaic application are given.

Construction Guide to Next-Generation High-Performance Walls in Climate Zones 3-5 - Part 1: 2x6 Walls

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kochkin, V.; Wiehagen, J.

2017-08-31

Part 1 of this Construction Guide to High-Performance Walls in Climate Zones 3-5 provides time-proven, practical, and cost-effective strategies for constructing durable, energy-efficient walls. It addresses walls constructed with 2x6 wood frame studs, wood structural panel (WSP) exterior sheathing, and a cladding system installed over WSP sheathing in low-rise residential buildings up to three stories high.

Construction Guide to Next-Generation High-Performance Walls in Climate Zones 3-5 - Part 1: 2x6 Walls

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kochkin, V.; Wiehagen, J.

Part 1 of this Construction Guide to High-Performance Walls in Climate Zones 3-5 provides time-proven, practical, and cost-effective strategies for constructing durable, energy-efficient walls. It addresses walls constructed with 2x6 wood frame studs, wood structural panel (WSP) exterior sheathing, and a cladding system installed over WSP sheathing in low-rise residential buildings up to three stories high.

Laser-only Adaptive Optics Achieves Significant Image Quality Gains Compared to Seeing-limited Observations over the Entire Sky

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howard, Ward S.; Law, Nicholas M.; Ziegler, Carl A.; Baranec, Christoph; Riddle, Reed

2018-02-01

Adaptive optics laser guide-star systems perform atmospheric correction of stellar wavefronts in two parts: stellar tip-tilt and high-spatial-order laser correction. The requirement of a sufficiently bright guide star in the field-of-view to correct tip-tilt limits sky coverage. In this paper, we show an improvement to effective seeing without the need for nearby bright stars, enabling full sky coverage by performing only laser-assisted wavefront correction. We used Robo-AO, the first robotic AO system, to comprehensively demonstrate this laser-only correction. We analyze observations from four years of efficient robotic operation covering 15000 targets and 42000 observations, each realizing different seeing conditions. Using an autoguider (or a post-processing software equivalent) and the laser to improve effective seeing independent of the brightness of a target, Robo-AO observations show a 39% ± 19% improvement to effective FWHM, without any tip-tilt correction. We also demonstrate that 50% encircled energy performance without tip-tilt correction remains comparable to diffraction-limited, standard Robo-AO performance. Faint-target science programs primarily limited by 50% encircled energy (e.g., those employing integral field spectrographs placed behind the AO system) may see significant benefits to sky coverage from employing laser-only AO.

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT): Version 2b: Installation Guide : [December 2015

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-12-01

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) is a software system that models aircraft performance in space and time to estimate fuel consumption, emissions, noise, and air quality consequences. AEDT facilitates environmental review activities required ...

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT): Version 2b: Installation Guide : [June 2016

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-06-01

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) is a software system that models aircraft performance in space and time to estimate fuel consumption, emissions, noise, and air quality consequences. AEDT facilitates environmental review activities required ...

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT): Version 2b: Installation Guide : [July 2015

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-07-01

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) is a software system that models aircraft performance in space and time to estimate fuel consumption, emissions, noise, and air quality consequences. AEDT facilitates environmental review activities required ...

Previous MOVES Versions and Documentation

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Find all software, user guides, and download and installation instructions for MOVES2010a and MOVES2010. Note that these version are not valid for SIP and transportation conformity purposes: MOVES2014 and MOVES2014a are the latest versions.

Installing computers in older adults' homes and teaching them to access a patient education web site: a systematic approach.

PubMed

Dauz, Emily; Moore, Jan; Smith, Carol E; Puno, Florence; Schaag, Helen

2004-01-01

This article describes the experiences of nurses who, as part of a large clinical trial, brought the Internet into older adults' homes by installing a computer, if needed, and connecting to a patient education Web site. Most of these patients had not previously used the Internet and were taught even basic computer skills when necessary. Because of increasing use of the Internet in patient education, assessment, and home monitoring, nurses in various roles currently connect with patients to monitor their progress, teach about medications, and answer questions about appointments and treatments. Thus, nurses find themselves playing the role of technology managers for patients with home-based Internet connections. This article provides step-by-step procedures for computer installation and training in the form of protocols, checklists, and patient user guides. By following these procedures, nurses can install computers, arrange Internet access, teach and connect to their patients, and prepare themselves to install future generations of technological devices.

A visually guided collision warning system with a neuromorphic architecture.

PubMed

Okuno, Hirotsugu; Yagi, Tetsuya

2008-12-01

We have designed a visually guided collision warning system with a neuromorphic architecture, employing an algorithm inspired by the visual nervous system of locusts. The system was implemented with mixed analog-digital integrated circuits consisting of an analog resistive network and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) circuits. The resistive network processes the interaction between the laterally spreading excitatory and inhibitory signals instantaneously, which is essential for real-time computation of collision avoidance with a low power consumption and a compact hardware. The system responded selectively to approaching objects of simulated movie images at close range. The system was, however, confronted with serious noise problems due to the vibratory ego-motion, when it was installed in a mobile miniature car. To overcome this problem, we developed the algorithm, which is also installable in FPGA circuits, in order for the system to respond robustly during the ego-motion.

Recent Upgrades at the Safety and Tritium Applied Research Facility

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cadwallader, Lee Charles; Merrill, Brad Johnson; Stewart, Dean Andrew

This paper gives a brief overview of the Safety and Tritium Applied Research (STAR) facility operated by the Fusion Safety Program (FSP) at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). FSP researchers use the STAR facility to carry out experiments in tritium permeation and retention in various fusion materials, including wall armor tile materials. FSP researchers also perform other experimentation as well to support safety assessment in fusion development. This lab, in its present two-building configuration, has been in operation for over ten years. The main experiments at STAR are briefly described. This paper discusses recent work to enhance personnel safety atmore » the facility. The STAR facility is a Department of Energy less than hazard category 3 facility; the personnel safety approach calls for ventilation and tritium monitoring for radiation protection. The tritium areas of STAR have about 4 to 12 air changes per hour, with air flow being once through and then routed to the facility vent stack. Additional radiation monitoring has been installed to read the laboratory room air where experiments with tritium are conducted. These ion chambers and bubblers are used to verify that no significant tritium concentrations are present in the experiment rooms. Standby electrical power has been added to the facility exhaust blower so that proper ventilation will now operate during commercial power outages as well as the real-time tritium air monitors.« less

The Border Star 85 Survey: Toward an Archeology of Landscapes

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-12

historic properties on that highly active military tire TRU method as implemented) were inadequate for installation. rendering determinations of National...Dofia Ana phase settlement, such required only minimal reporting sufficient to render Na- that one could speculate as to how and why variation among...this dependent upon precipitation. In normal or high rainfall sort are complicated, however, by factors that render them years there would be many

Stellar Populations in the Central 0.5 pc of the Galaxy. I. A New Method for Constructing Luminosity Functions and Surface-density Profiles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Do, T.; Lu, J. R.; Ghez, A. M.; Morris, M. R.; Yelda, S.; Martinez, G. D.; Wright, S. A.; Matthews, K.

2013-02-01

We present new high angular resolution near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the nuclear star cluster surrounding the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole. Using the integral-field spectrograph OSIRIS on Keck II behind the laser-guide-star adaptive optics system, this spectroscopic survey enables us to separate early-type (young, 4-6 Myr) and late-type (old, >1 Gyr) stars with a completeness of 50% down to K' = 15.5 mag, which corresponds to ~10 M ⊙ for the early-type stars. This work increases the radial extent of reported OSIRIS/Keck measurements by more than a factor of three from 4'' to 14'' (0.16 to 0.56 pc), along the projected disk of young stars. For our analysis, we implement a new method of completeness correction using a combination of star-planting simulations and Bayesian inference. We assign probabilities for the spectral type of every source detected in deep imaging down to K' = 15.5 mag using information from spectra, simulations, number counts, and the distribution of stars. The inferred radial surface-density profiles, Σ(R)vpropR -Γ, for the young stars and late-type giants are consistent with earlier results (Γearly = 0.93 ± 0.09, Γlate = 0.16 ± 0.07). The late-type surface-density profile is approximately flat out to the edge of the survey. While the late-type stellar luminosity function is consistent with the Galactic bulge, the completeness-corrected luminosity function of the early-type stars has significantly more young stars at faint magnitudes compared with previous surveys with similar depth. This luminosity function indicates that the corresponding mass function of the young stars is likely less top-heavy than that inferred from previous surveys.

In search of Nemesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carlson, S.; Culler, T.; Muller, R. A.; Tetreault, M.; Perlmutter, S.

1994-01-01

The parallax of all stars of visual magnitude greater than about 6.5 has already been measured. If Nemesis is a main-sequence star 1 parsec away, this requires Nemesis's mass to be less than about 0.4 solar masses. If it were less than about 0.05 solar masses its gravity would be too weak to trigger a comet storm. If Nemesis is on the main sequence, this mass range requires it to be a red dwarf. A red dwarf companion would probably have been missed by standard astronomical surveys. Nearby stars are usually found because they are bright or have high proper motion. However, Nemesis's proper motion would now be 0.01 arcsec/yr, and if it is a red dwarf its magnitude is about 10 - too dim to attract attention. Unfortunately, standard four-color photometry does not distinguish between red dwarfs and giants. So although surveys such as the Dearborn Red Star Catalog list stars by magnitude and spectral type, they do not identify the dwarfs. Every star of the correct spectral type and magnitude must be scrutinized. Our candidate list is a hybrid; candidate red stars are identified in the astrometrically poor Dearborn Red Star Catalog and their positions are corrected using the Hubble Guide Star Catalog. When errors in the Dearborn catalog make it impossible to identify the corresponding Hubble star, the fields are split so that we have one centering on each possible candidate. We are currently scrutinizing 3098 fields, which we believe contain all possible red dwarf candidates in the northern hemisphere. Since our last report the analysis and database software has been completely rebuilt to take advantage of updated hardware, to make the data more accessible, and to implement improved methods of data analysis. The software is now completed and we are eliminating stars every clear night.

Hubble Space Telescope Reduced-Gyro Control Law Design, Implementation, and On-Orbit Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clapp, Brian R.; Ramsey, Patrick R.; Wirzburger, John H.; Smith, Daniel C.; VanArsadall, John C.

2008-01-01

Following gyro failures in April 2001 and April 2003, HST Pointing Control System engineers designed reduced-gyro control laws to extend the spacecraft science mission. The Two-Gyro Science (TGS) and One-Gyro Science (OGS) control laws were designed and implemented using magnetometers, star trackers, and Fine Guidance Sensors in succession to control vehicle rate about the missing gyro axes. Both TGS and OGS have demonstrated on-orbit pointing stability of 7 milli-arcseconds or less, which depends upon the guide star magnitude used by the Fine Guidance Sensor. This paper describes the design, implementation, and on-orbit performance of the TGS and OGS control law fine-pointing modes using Fixed Head Star Trackers and Fine Guidance Sensors, after successfully achieving coarse-pointing control using magnetometers.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: A Finding List of Faint UV-Bright Stars (Lanning+, 1998)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lanning, H. H.

1997-02-01

The Sandage two-color photographic survey was originally made in support of the UHURU x-ray satellite in order to identify those optical counterparts of the detected x-ray sources found in the galactic plane. During inspection of the plates, however, many UV-bright objects fainter than 10th magnitude were seen in the general field. A larger image in the U filter suggested the possibility of a bluer object as in the case of low-luminosity stars, white dwarfs, novae, CVs, normal early B stars, etc. As these are interesting in themselves, it was decided to publish a catalog for the use of other observers. This multi-color photographic technique has been described, for example, by Haro and Herbig (1955). The survey was concentrated on objects with m(B)~10 or fainter. It employed the Palomar 48-in (Oschin) Schmidt telescope and was centered on the galactic plane with overlapping regions covering the galactic latitudes +- 9 degrees, and extending throughout most of the northern plane (l = 0 deg - 227 deg). Plates were taken by J. Kristian, A.R. Sandage, R.J. Brucato, and Lanning, primarily. The data presented here were found following a careful examination of the plates but it should not be assumed these data represent a complete survey of the fields examined. The categories were roughly calibrated against photoelectric (U-B) measures, but a full scale calibration program, including magnitude effects, etc. was not done. The numerical (U-B) limits of the tables should not therefore be taken precisely. The blue magnitude of the sources in the finding list has been estimated using these photoelectric values as a guide but should be considered accurate to only +- 0.5 mag. due to the difficulty of adjusting to the various plate characteristics. Positions were measured from images retrieved from the Space Telescope Science Institute collection of Guide Star digital plate scans. The accuracy of positions from the Guide Star Catalog images has been estimated to be on the order of 0.2-0.8 arcsec (Russell et al. 1990) Information provided by Bidelman (private communication) resulted in the discovery that 15 positions for objects listed in Paper II were in error. Investigation indicated that an incorrect header was associated with the scan of the Guide Star plate originally archived onto optical disk. The incorrect astrometric solution, based on the use of an incorrect origin point, was subsequently applied in the positional determination when centroiding the object. The average offset for positions in right ascension is 14.17 seconds of time, with no detectable trend in the numbers. The offsets in declination range from +6.56 arcseconds through zero to -6.85 arcseconds as one progresses from west to east across the plate. This is consistent with a rotation being introduced into the bad plate solution. Objects with incorrect positions included Lanning 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 104, 108, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 119, and 122. uv.dat contains the corrected coordinates. (2 data files).

Binary properties of CH and carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jorissen, A.; Van Eck, S.; Van Winckel, H.; Merle, T.; Boffin, H. M. J.; Andersen, J.; Nordström, B.; Udry, S.; Masseron, T.; Lenaerts, L.; Waelkens, C.

2016-02-01

The HERMES spectrograph installed on the 1.2-m Mercator telescope has been used to monitor the radial velocity of 13 low-metallicity carbon stars, among which seven carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars and six CH stars (including HIP 53522, a new member of the family, as revealed by a detailed abundance study). All stars but one show clear evidence for binarity. New orbits are obtained for eight systems. The sample covers an extended range in orbital periods, extending from 3.4 d (for the dwarf carbon star HE 0024-2523) to about 54 yr (for the CH star HD 26, the longest known among barium, CH, and extrinsic S stars). Three systems exhibit low-amplitude velocity variations with periods close to 1 yr superimposed on a long-term trend. In the absence of an accurate photometric monitoring of these systems, it is not clear yet whether these variations are the signature of a very low-mass companion or of regular envelope pulsations. The period - eccentricity (P - e) diagram for the 40 low-metallicity carbon stars with orbits now available shows no difference between CH and CEMP-s stars (the latter corresponding to those CEMP stars enriched in s-process elements, as are CH stars). We suggest that they must be considered as one and the same family and that their different names only stem from historical reasons. Indeed, these two families have as well very similar mass-function distributions, corresponding to companions with masses in the range 0.5-0.7 M⊙, indicative of white-dwarf companions, adopting 0.8-0.9 M⊙ for the primary component. This result confirms that CH and CEMP-s stars obey the same mass-transfer scenario as their higher-metallicity analogues, barium stars. The P - e diagrams of barium, CH, and CEMP-s stars are indeed very similar. They reveal two different groups of systems: one with short orbital periods (P< 1000 d) and mostly circular or almost circular orbits, and another with longer period and eccentric (e> 0.1) orbits. These two groups either trace different evolutionary channels during the mass-transfer episode responsible for the chemical peculiarities of the Ba/CH/CEMP-s stars, or result from the operation of tidal circularisation in a more recent past, when the current giant star was ascending the first giant branch. Individual radial velocities are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/586/A158

On-Sky Tests of a High-Power Pulsed Laser for Sodium Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Otarola, Angel; Hickson, Paul; Gagné, Ronald; Bo, Yong; Zuo, Junwei; Xie, Shiyong; Feng, Lu; Rochester, Simon; Budker, Dmitry; Shen, Shixia; Xue, Suijian; Min, Li; Wei, Kai; Boyer, Corinne; Ellerbroek, Brent; Hu, Jingyao; Peng, Qinjun; Xu, Zuyan

2016-03-01

We present results of on-sky tests performed in the summer of 2013 to characterize the performance of a prototype high-power pulsed laser for adaptive optics. The laser operates at a pulse repetition rate (PRR) of 600-800Hz, with a 6% duty cycle. Its coupling efficiency was found to be, in the best test case (using 18W of transmitted power), 231±14 photons s-1 sr-1 atom-1 W-1 m2 when circular polarization was employed and 167±17 photons s-1 sr-1 atom-1 W-1 m2 with linear polarization. No improvement was seen when D2b repumping was used, but this is likely due to the relatively large laser guide star (LGS) diameter, typically 10 arcsec or more, which resulted in low irradiance levels. Strong relaxation oscillations were present in the laser output, which have the effect of reducing the coupling efficiency. To better understand the results, a physical modeling was performed using the measured pulse profiles and parameters specific to these tests. The model results, for a 10 arcsec angular size LGS spot, agree well with the observations. When extrapolating the physical model for a sub-arcsecond angular size LGS (typical of what is needed for a successful astronomical guide star), the model predicts that this laser would have a coupling efficiency of 130 photons s-1 sr-1 atom-1 W-1 m2, using circular polarization and D2b repumping, for a LGS diameter of 0.6 arcsec Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM), and free of relaxation oscillations in the 589 nm laser light.

NorthernSTAR 1-1/2-Story Demonstration House of Cold Climate Solutions for Affordable Housing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schirber, T.; Ojczyk, C.; Jacobson, R.

Single family homes in urban areas that are available for renovation by nonprofit developers are often in rough shape (1MM to 2MM nationally). Budgeting has historically focused on improving homes to meet basic housing standards. A rising interest in the long-term impact of homeownership has introduced the need to balance basic needs with home performance. This demonstration project aims to help nonprofit affordable housing developers become familiar with three Building America performance measures, the installation processes, and impacts and benefits of each. A story and a half home in North Minneapolis, MN was presented by Urban Homeworks our local nonprofitmore » partner. The team helped them install three researched upgrade measures: exterior roof insulation or 'overcoat,' exterior foundation insulation, or 'excavationless', and a combined space and water heating HVAC system or 'combi'. To maximize efficiency of application and to address budget issues, the Team worked with Urban Homeworks to identify ways to use volunteers and construction training programs to install the measures. An open invitation to visit the job site was extended to other nonprofit developers and industry partners to encourage dialog about the systems during live installation.« less

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT): Version 2c Service Pack 2: Installation Guide

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-03-01

Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) is a software system that models aircraft performance in space and time to estimate fuel consumption, emissions, noise, and air quality consequences. AEDT facilitates environmental review activities required ...

Astrophotography Basics: Meteors, Comets, Eclipses, Aurorae, Star Trails. Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY.

This pamphlet gives an introduction to the principles of astronomical picture-taking. Chapters included are: (1) "Getting Started" (describing stationary cameras, sky charts and mapping, guided cameras, telescopes, brightness of astronomical subjects, estimating exposure, film selection, camera filters, film processing, and exposure for…

Study on installation of the submersible mixer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tian, F.; Shi, W. D.; He, X. H.; Jiang, H.; Xu, Y. H.

2013-12-01

Study on installation of the submersible mixer for sewage treatment has been limited. In this article, large-scale computational fluid dynamics software FLUENT6.3 was adopted. ICEM software was used to build an unstructured grid of sewage treatment pool. After that, the sewage treatment pool was numerically simulated by dynamic coordinate system technology and RNG k-ε turbulent model and PIOS algorithm. Agitation pools on four different installation location cases were simulated respectively, and the external characteristic of the submersible mixer and the velocity cloud of the axial section were respectively comparatively analyzed. The best stirring effect can be reached by the installation location of case C, which is near the bottom of the pool 600 mm and blade distance the bottom at least for 200 mm wide and wide edge and narrow edge distance by 4:3. The conclusion can guide the engineering practice.

Solar tomography adaptive optics.

PubMed

Ren, Deqing; Zhu, Yongtian; Zhang, Xi; Dou, Jiangpei; Zhao, Gang

2014-03-10

Conventional solar adaptive optics uses one deformable mirror (DM) and one guide star for wave-front sensing, which seriously limits high-resolution imaging over a large field of view (FOV). Recent progress toward multiconjugate adaptive optics indicates that atmosphere turbulence induced wave-front distortion at different altitudes can be reconstructed by using multiple guide stars. To maximize the performance over a large FOV, we propose a solar tomography adaptive optics (TAO) system that uses tomographic wave-front information and uses one DM. We show that by fully taking advantage of the knowledge of three-dimensional wave-front distribution, a classical solar adaptive optics with one DM can provide an extra performance gain for high-resolution imaging over a large FOV in the near infrared. The TAO will allow existing one-deformable-mirror solar adaptive optics to deliver better performance over a large FOV for high-resolution magnetic field investigation, where solar activities occur in a two-dimensional field up to 60'', and where the near infrared is superior to the visible in terms of magnetic field sensitivity.

On-sky demonstration of matched filters for wavefront measurements using ELT-scale elongated laser guide stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basden, A. G.; Bardou, L.; Bonaccini Calia, D.; Buey, T.; Centrone, M.; Chemla, F.; Gach, J. L.; Gendron, E.; Gratadour, D.; Guidolin, I.; Jenkins, D. R.; Marchetti, E.; Morris, T. J.; Myers, R. M.; Osborn, J.; Reeves, A. P.; Reyes, M.; Rousset, G.; Lombardi, G.; Townson, M. J.; Vidal, F.

2017-04-01

The performance of adaptive optics systems is partially dependent on the algorithms used within the real-time control system to compute wavefront slope measurements. We demonstrate the use of a matched filter algorithm for the processing of elongated laser guide star (LGS) Shack-Hartmann images, using the CANARY adaptive optics instrument on the 4.2 m William Herschel Telescope and the European Southern Observatory Wendelstein LGS Unit placed 40 m away. This algorithm has been selected for use with the forthcoming Thirty Meter Telescope, but until now had not been demonstrated on-sky. From the results of a first observing run, we show that the use of matched filtering improves our adaptive optics system performance, with increases in on-sky H-band Strehl measured up to about a factor of 1.1 with respect to a conventional centre of gravity approach. We describe the algorithm used, and the methods that we implemented to enable on-sky demonstration.

Real-time turbulence profiling with a pair of laser guide star Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors for wide-field adaptive optics systems on large to extremely large telescopes.

PubMed

Gilles, L; Ellerbroek, B L

2010-11-01

Real-time turbulence profiling is necessary to tune tomographic wavefront reconstruction algorithms for wide-field adaptive optics (AO) systems on large to extremely large telescopes, and to perform a variety of image post-processing tasks involving point-spread function reconstruction. This paper describes a computationally efficient and accurate numerical technique inspired by the slope detection and ranging (SLODAR) method to perform this task in real time from properly selected Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor measurements accumulated over a few hundred frames from a pair of laser guide stars, thus eliminating the need for an additional instrument. The algorithm is introduced, followed by a theoretical influence function analysis illustrating its impulse response to high-resolution turbulence profiles. Finally, its performance is assessed in the context of the Thirty Meter Telescope multi-conjugate adaptive optics system via end-to-end wave optics Monte Carlo simulations.

NASA's Hubble Universe in 3-D

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

This image depicts a vast canyon of dust and gas in the Orion Nebula from a 3-D computer model based on observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and created by science visualization specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md. A 3-D visualization of this model takes viewers on an amazing four-minute voyage through the 15-light-year-wide canyon. Credit: NASA, G. Bacon, L. Frattare, Z. Levay, and F. Summers (STScI/AURA) Go here to learn more about Hubble 3D: www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/hubble_imax_premier... or www.imax.com/hubble/ Take an exhilarating ride through the Orion Nebula, a vast star-making factory 1,500 light-years away. Swoop through Orion's giant canyon of gas and dust. Fly past behemoth stars whose brilliant light illuminates and energizes the entire cloudy region. Zoom by dusty tadpole-shaped objects that are fledgling solar systems. This virtual space journey isn't the latest video game but one of several groundbreaking astronomy visualizations created by specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, the science operations center for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The cinematic space odysseys are part of the new Imax film "Hubble 3D," which opens today at select Imax theaters worldwide. The 43-minute movie chronicles the 20-year life of Hubble and includes highlights from the May 2009 servicing mission to the Earth-orbiting observatory, with footage taken by the astronauts. The giant-screen film showcases some of Hubble's breathtaking iconic pictures, such as the Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation," as well as stunning views taken by the newly installed Wide Field Camera 3. While Hubble pictures of celestial objects are awe-inspiring, they are flat 2-D photographs. For this film, those 2-D images have been converted into 3-D environments, giving the audience the impression they are space travelers taking a tour of Hubble's most popular targets. "A large-format movie is a truly immersive experience," says Frank Summers, an STScI astronomer and science visualization specialist who led the team that developed the movie visualizations. The team labored for nine months, working on four visualization sequences that comprise about 12 minutes of the movie. "Seeing these Hubble images in 3-D, you feel like you are flying through space and not just looking at picture postcards," Summers continued. "The spacescapes are all based on Hubble images and data, though some artistic license is necessary to produce the full depth of field needed for 3-D." The most ambitious sequence is a four-minute voyage through the Orion Nebula's gas-and-dust canyon, about 15 light-years across. During the ride, viewers will see bright and dark, gaseous clouds; thousands of stars, including a grouping of bright, hefty stars called the Trapezium; and embryonic planetary systems. The tour ends with a detailed look at a young circumstellar disk, which is much like the structure from which our solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago. Based on a Hubble image of Orion released in 2006, the visualization was a collaborative effort between science visualization specialists at STScI, including Greg Bacon, who sculpted the Orion Nebula digital model, with input from STScI astronomer Massimo Roberto; the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. For some of the sequences, STScI imaging specialists developed new techniques for transforming the 2-D Hubble images into 3-D. STScI image processing specialists Lisa Frattare and Zolt Levay, for example, created methods of splitting a giant gaseous pillar in the Carina Nebula into multiple layers to produce a 3-D effect, giving the structure depth. The Carina Nebula is a nursery for baby stars. Frattare painstakingly removed the thousands of stars in the image so that Levay could separate the gaseous layers on the isolated Carina pillar. Frattare then replaced the stars into both foreground and background layers to complete the 3-D model. For added effect, the same separation was done for both visible and infrared Hubble images, allowing the film to cross-fade between wavelength views in 3-D. In another sequence viewers fly into a field of 170,000 stars in the giant star cluster Omega Centauri. STScI astronomer Jay Anderson used his stellar database to create a synthetic star field in 3-D that matches recent razor-sharp Hubble photos. The film's final four-minute sequence takes viewers on a voyage from our Milky Way Galaxy past many of Hubble's best galaxy shots and deep into space. Some 15,000 galaxies from Hubble's deepest surveys stretch billions of light-years across the universe in a 3-D sequence created by STScI astronomers and visualizers. The view dissolves into a cobweb that traces the universe's large-scale structure, the backbone from which galaxies were born. In addition to creating visualizations, STScI's education group also provided guidance on the "Hubble 3D" Educator Guide, which includes standards-based lesson plans and activities about Hubble and its mission. Students will use the guide before or after seeing the movie. "The guide will enhance the movie experience for students and extend the movie into classrooms," says Bonnie Eisenhamer, STScI's Hubble Formal Education manager. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) and is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington, D.C.

KSC-2011-7872

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-16

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Inside a Pegasus booster processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, all three fins on the aft end of the Pegasus XL rocket's first stage have been installed. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket will launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on the Orbital Sciences’ L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

EXPRES: a next generation RV spectrograph in the search for earth-like worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jurgenson, C.; Fischer, D.; McCracken, T.; Sawyer, D.; Szymkowiak, A.; Davis, A.; Muller, G.; Santoro, F.

2016-08-01

The EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph (EXPRES) is an optical fiber fed echelle instrument being designed and built at the Yale Exoplanet Laboratory to be installed on the 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescope operated by Lowell Observatory. The primary science driver for EXPRES is to detect Earth-like worlds around Sun-like stars. With this in mind, we are designing the spectrograph to have an instrumental precision of 15 cm/s so that the on-sky measurement precision (that includes modeling for RV noise from the star) can reach to better than 30 cm/s. This goal places challenging requirements on every aspect of the instrument development, including optomechanical design, environmental control, image stabilization, wavelength calibration, and data analysis. In this paper we describe our error budget, and instrument optomechanical design.

KSC-2011-7871

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-16

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Inside a Pegasus booster processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, all three fins on the aft end of the Pegasus XL rocket's first stage have been installed. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket will launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on the Orbital Sciences’ L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

NICER ground verification: as-built timing, spectroscopy, and throughout performance of NASA's next X-raytiming astrophysics mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gendreau, Keith; Arzoumanian, Zaven; NICER Team

2017-01-01

The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) Mission of Opportunity will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017 aboard a SpaceX resupply vehicle. Once installed as an external attached payload, NICER will provide an unprecedented soft X-ray timing spectroscopy capability for neutron stars and other phenomena. In June 2016, the NICER payload was delivered from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to Cape Canaveral to await launch processing. We present measurements made as part of NICER's preship testing to verify performance of its X-ray Timing Instrument and associated subsystems; these measurements demonstrate that NICER meets or surpasses its design requirements in the areas of photon time-tagging resolution, energy resolution, effective collecting area, and high-rate throughput.

StarGuides Plus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heck, A.

StarGuides Plus represents the most comprehensive and accurately validated collection of practical data on organizations involved in astronomy, related space sciences and other related fields. This invaluable reference source (and its companion volume, StarBriefs Plus) should be on the reference shelf of every library, organization or individual with any interest in these areas. The coverage includes relevant universities, scientific committees, institutions, associations, societies, agencies, companies, bibliographic services, data centers, museums, dealers, distributors, funding organizations, journals, manufacturers, meteorological services, national norms & standard institutes, parent associations & societies, publishers, software producers & distributors, and so on. Besides astronomy and associated space sciences, related fields such as aeronautics, aeronomy, astronautics, atmospheric sciences, chemistry, communications, computer sciences, data processing, education, electronics, engineering, energetics, environment, geodesy, geophysics, information handling, management, mathematics, meteorology, optics, physics, remote sensing, and so on, are also covered where appropriate. After some thirty years in continuous compilation, verification and updating, StarGuides Plus currently gathers together some 6,000 entries from 100 countries. The information is presented in a clear, uncluttered manner for direct and easy use. For each entry, all practical data are listed: city, postal and electronic-mail addresses, telephone and fax numbers, URLs for WWW access, foundation years, numbers of members and/or numbers of staff, main activities, publications titles (with frequencies, ISS-Numbers and circulations), names and geographical coordinates of observing sites, names of planetariums, awards (prizes and/or distinctions) granted, etc. The entries are listed alphabetically in each country. An exhaustive index gives a breakdown not only by different designations and acronyms, but also by location and major terms in names. Thematic sub-indices are also provided as well as a list of telephone and telefax national codes. In short, almost anyone involved in any way in the fields of astronomy and related space sciences will find invaluable contact and background information in this volume. All entries have been compiled from data supplied by the listed organizations and all data have been independently verified - making this compilation the most accurate and relevant source available. Link: http://www.wkap.nl/prod/b/1-4020-1926-2

Fluorescent supramolecular micelles for imaging-guided cancer therapy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Mengmeng; Yin, Wenyan; Dong, Xinghua; Yang, Wantai; Zhao, Yuliang; Yin, Meizhen

2016-02-01

A novel smart fluorescent drug delivery system composed of a perylene diimide (PDI) core and block copolymer poly(d,l-lactide)-b-poly(ethyl ethylene phosphate) is developed and named as PDI-star-(PLA-b-PEEP)8. The biodegradable PDI-star-(PLA-b-PEEP)8 is a unimolecular micelle and can self-assemble into supramolecular micelles, called as fluorescent supramolecular micelles (FSMs), in aqueous media. An insoluble drug camptothecin (CPT) can be effectively loaded into the FSMs and exhibits pH-responsive release. Moreover, the FSMs with good biocompatibility can also be employed as a remarkable fluorescent probe for cell labelling because the maximum emission of PDI is beneficial for bio-imaging. The flow cytometry and confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis demonstrate that the micelles are easily endocytosed by cancer cells. In vitro and in vivo tumor growth-inhibitory studies reveal a better therapeutic effect of FSMs after CPT encapsulation when compared with the free CPT drug. The multifunctional FSM nanomedicine platform as a nanovehicle has great potential for fluorescence imaging-guided cancer therapy.A novel smart fluorescent drug delivery system composed of a perylene diimide (PDI) core and block copolymer poly(d,l-lactide)-b-poly(ethyl ethylene phosphate) is developed and named as PDI-star-(PLA-b-PEEP)8. The biodegradable PDI-star-(PLA-b-PEEP)8 is a unimolecular micelle and can self-assemble into supramolecular micelles, called as fluorescent supramolecular micelles (FSMs), in aqueous media. An insoluble drug camptothecin (CPT) can be effectively loaded into the FSMs and exhibits pH-responsive release. Moreover, the FSMs with good biocompatibility can also be employed as a remarkable fluorescent probe for cell labelling because the maximum emission of PDI is beneficial for bio-imaging. The flow cytometry and confocal laser scanning microscopy analysis demonstrate that the micelles are easily endocytosed by cancer cells. In vitro and in vivo tumor growth-inhibitory studies reveal a better therapeutic effect of FSMs after CPT encapsulation when compared with the free CPT drug. The multifunctional FSM nanomedicine platform as a nanovehicle has great potential for fluorescence imaging-guided cancer therapy. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c6nr00450d

Possible Observational Criteria for Distinguishing Brown Dwarfs From Planets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Black, David C.

1997-01-01

The difference in formation process between binary stars and planetary systems is reflected in their composition, as well as orbital architecture, particularly in their orbital eccentricity as a function of orbital period. It is suggested here that this difference can be used as an observational criterion to distinguish between brown dwarfs and planets. Application of the orbital criterion suggests that, with three possible exceptions, all of the recently discovered substellar companions may be brown dwarfs and not planets. These criterion may be used as a guide for interpretation of the nature of substellar-mass companions to stars in the future.

A Study Guide for the Analysis of Gaia Astrometic Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Altena, W. F.

2018-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to enthusiastically support the use of Gaia's data and to suggest an approach for improving our backgrounds so that its data is used in the best possible manner. The principal goals of the Gaia mission are to investigate the origin and subsequent evolution of the Milky Way by mapping the Galaxy to the 20th magnitude and the determination of positions, parallaxes and proper motions of 109 stars. In addition, Gaia is to determine spectroscopic data including the metallicity, distance, extinction and radial velocities for 150× 106 stars brighter than 15th magnitude.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bartlett, Roscoe A.; Baird, Mark L.; Berrill, Mark A.

This guide describes the structure and setup of the standard VERA development environment (VERA Dev Env) and standard VERA Third Party Libraries (TPLs) that need to be in place before installing many of the VERA simulation components. It describes everything from the initial setup on a new machine to the final build, testing, and installation of VERA components. The goal of this document is to describe how to create the directories and contents outlined in Standard VERA Dev Env Directory Structure and then obtain the remaining VERA source and build, test, and install any of the necessary VERA components onmore » a given system. This document describes the process both for a development version of VERA and for a released tarball of the VERA sources.« less

Renewable energy water supply - Mexico program summary

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Foster, R.

1997-12-01

This paper describes a program directed by the US Agency for International Development and Sandia National Laboratory which installed sustainable energy sources in the form of photovoltaic modules and wind energy systems in rural Mexico to pump water and provide solar distillation services. The paper describes the guidelines which appeared most responsible for success as: promote an integrated development program; install quality systems that develop confidence; instill local project ownership; train local industry and project developers; develop a local maintenance infrastructure; provide users training and operations guide; develop clear lines of responsibilities for system upkeep. The paper emphasizes the importancemore » of training. It also presents much collected data as to the characteristics and performance of the installed systems.« less

Space Science

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-04-02

Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this monstrous object is actually an irnocuous pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (NGC 2264), this giant pillar resides in a turbulent star-forming region. This picture, taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during Space Shuttle STS-109 mission in March 2002, shows the upper 2.5 light-years of the nebula, a height that equals 23 million roundtrips to the Moon. The entire nebula is 7 light-years long. The Cone Nebula resides 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros. Radiation from hot, young stars (located beyond the top of the image) has slowly eroded the nebula over millions of years. Ultraviolet light heats the edges of the dark cloud, releasing gas into the relatively empty region of surrounding space. There, additional ultraviolet radiation causes the hydrogen gas to glow, which produces the red halo of light seen around the pillar. A similar process occurs on a much smaller scale to gas surrounding a single star, forming the bow-shaped arc seen near the upper left side of the Cone. This arc, seen previously with the HST, is 65 times larger than the diameter of our solar system. The blue-white light from surrounding stars is reflected by dust. Background stars can be seen peeking through the evaporating tendrils of gas, while the turbulent base is pockmarked with stars reddened by dust. Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (USCS/LO), M. Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA.

Predicting the locations of possible long-lived low-mass first stars: importance of satellite dwarf galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magg, Mattis; Hartwig, Tilman; Agarwal, Bhaskar; Frebel, Anna; Glover, Simon C. O.; Griffen, Brendan F.; Klessen, Ralf S.

2018-02-01

The search for metal-free stars has so far been unsuccessful, proving that if there are surviving stars from the first generation, they are rare, they have been polluted or we have been looking in the wrong place. To predict the likely location of Population III (Pop III) survivors, we semi-analytically model early star formation in progenitors of Milky Way-like galaxies and their environments. We base our model on merger trees from the high-resolution dark matter only simulation suite Caterpillar. Radiative and chemical feedback are taken into account self-consistently, based on the spatial distribution of the haloes. Our results are consistent with the non-detection of Pop III survivors in the Milky Way today. We find that possible surviving Pop III stars are more common in Milky Way satellites than in the main Galaxy. In particular, low-mass Milky Way satellites contain a much larger fraction of Pop III stars than the Milky Way. Such nearby, low-mass Milky Way satellites are promising targets for future attempts to find Pop III survivors, especially for high-resolution, high signal-to-noise spectroscopic observations. We provide the probabilities of finding a Pop III survivor in the red giant branch phase for all known Milky Way satellites to guide future observations.

Young Stellar Populations in MYStIX Star-forming Regions: Candidate Protostars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romine, Gregory; Feigelson, Eric D.; Getman, Konstantin V.; Kuhn, Michael A.; Povich, Matthew S.

2016-12-01

The Massive Young Star-Forming Complex in Infrared and X-ray (MYStIX) project provides a new census on stellar members of massive star-forming regions within 4 kpc. Here the MYStIX Infrared Excess catalog and Chandra-based X-ray photometric catalogs are mined to obtain high-quality samples of Class I protostars using criteria designed to reduce extragalactic and Galactic field star contamination. A total of 1109 MYStIX Candidate Protostars (MCPs) are found in 14 star-forming regions. Most are selected from protoplanetary disk infrared excess emission, but 20% are found from their ultrahard X-ray spectra from heavily absorbed magnetospheric flare emission. Two-thirds of the MCP sample is newly reported here. The resulting samples are strongly spatially associated with molecular cores and filaments on Herschel far-infrared maps. This spatial agreement and other evidence indicate that the MCP sample has high reliability with relatively few “false positives” from contaminating populations. But the limited sensitivity and sparse overlap among the infrared and X-ray subsamples indicate that the sample is very incomplete with many “false negatives.” Maps, tables, and source descriptions are provided to guide further study of star formation in these regions. In particular, the nature of ultrahard X-ray protostellar candidates without known infrared counterparts needs to be elucidated.

Measuring the stellar luminosity function and spatial density profile of the inner 0.5 pc of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Do, Tuan; Ghez, Andrea; Lu, Jessica R.; Morris, Mark R.; Yelda, Sylvana; Martinez, Gregory D.; Peter, Annika H. G.; Wright, Shelley; Bullock, James; Kaplinghat, Manoj; Matthews, K.

2012-07-01

We report on measurements of the luminosity function of early (young) and late-type (old) stars in the central 0.5 pc of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster as well as the density profiles of both components. The young (~ 6 Myr) and old stars (> 1 Gyr) in this region provide different physical probes of the environment around a supermassive black hole; the luminosity function of the young stars offers us a way to measure the initial mass function from star formation in an extreme environment, while the density profile of the old stars offers us a probe of the dynamical interaction of a star cluster with a massive black hole. The two stellar populations are separated through a near-infrared spectroscopic survey using the integral-field spectrograph OSIRIS on Keck II behind the laser guide star adaptive optics system. This spectroscopic survey is able to separate early-type (young) and late-type (old) stars with a completeness of 50% at K' = 15.5. We describe our method of completeness correction using a combination of star planting simulations and Bayesian inference. The completeness corrected luminosity function of the early-type stars contains significantly more young stars at faint magnitudes compared to previous surveys with similar depth. In addition, by using proper motion and radial velocity measurements along with anisotropic spherical Jeans modeling of the cluster, it is possible to measure the spatial density profile of the old stars, which has been difficult to constrain with number counts alone. The most probable model shows that the spatial density profile, n(r) propto r-γ, to be shallow with γ = 0.4 ± 0.2, which is much flatter than the dynamically relaxed case of γ = 3/2 to 7/4, but does rule out a 'hole' in the distribution of old stars. We show, for the first time, that the spatial density profile, the black hole mass, and velocity anisotropy can be fit simultaneously to obtain a black hole mass that is consistent with that derived from individual orbits of stars at distances < 1000 AU from the Galactic center.

A prestorage method to measure neutron transmission of ultracold neutron guides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blau, B.; Daum, M.; Fertl, M.; Geltenbort, P.; Göltl, L.; Henneck, R.; Kirch, K.; Knecht, A.; Lauss, B.; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P.; Zsigmond, G.

2016-01-01

There are worldwide efforts to search for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Precision experiments using ultracold neutrons (UCN) require very high intensities of UCN. Efficient transport of UCN from the production volume to the experiment is therefore of great importance. We have developed a method using prestored UCN in order to quantify UCN transmission in tubular guides. This method simulates the final installation at the Paul Scherrer Institute's UCN source where neutrons are stored in an intermediate storage vessel serving three experimental ports. This method allowed us to qualify UCN guides for their intended use and compare their properties.

New Planetariums For Old

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peterson, David

2005-11-01

The audio and visual capabilities of the planetarium at Francis Marion University were upgraded in Fall 2004 to incorporate three Barco CRT projectors and surround sound. Controlled by the Astro-FX media manager system developed by Bowen Technovation, the projectors focus on the 33 foot dome installed in 1978 for the Spitz 512 Star projector. The significant additional capabilities of the new combined systems will be presented together with a review of the planetarium renovation procedure.

PIA installation and user guide : 2009 update.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-04-01

A significant number of TxDOTs signalized intersections operate under isolated control. : At many of these signals, it is not uncommon for an approaching platoon of vehicles to : face a red signal when it arrives at the stopbar. Often, these plato...

32 CFR 247.1 - Purpose.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... DEFENSE NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES AND CIVILIAN ENTERPRISE PUBLICATIONS § 247.1 Purpose. This part implements... concerning authorized DoD Appropriated Funded (APF) newspapers and magazines, and Civilian Enterprise (CE) newspapers, magazines, guides, and installation maps in support of the DoD Internal Information Program. 1...

Design, development and deployment of public service photovoltaic power/load systems for the Gabonese Republic

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaszeta, William J.

1987-01-01

Five different types of public service photovoltaic power/load systems installed in the Gabonese Republic are discussed. The village settings, the systems, performance results and some problems encountered are described. Most of the systems performed well, but some of the systems had problems due to failure of components or installation errors. The project was reasonably successful in collecting and reporting data for system performance evaluation that will be useful for guiding officials and system designers involved in village power applications in developing countries.

Solar demonstration project in a fast-food restaurant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McClenahan, D.

1980-11-01

The results of a two-phase program in which the first phase included the successful use of heat reclamation equipment and energy conservation techniques at a typical fast-food restaurant are described. The project's second phase involved the engineering, designing, installation and interfacing of a solar collector system at the facility. The report will help to serve as a guide for other restaurants around the state, and possibly the nation, which wish to install energy saving systems, or adopt energy-saving techniques, geared to their special needs and equipment.

Spectroscopy of neutron rich nuclei using cold neutron induced fission of actinide targets at the ILL: the EXILL campaign

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de France, G.; Blanc, A.; Drouet, F.; Jentschel, M.; Köster, U.; Mutti, P.; Régis, J. M.; Simpson, G.; Soldner, T.; Stezowski, O.; Ur, C. A.; Urban, W.; Vancrayenest, A.

2014-03-01

A combination of germanium detectors has been installed at the PF1B neutron guide of the ILL to perform the prompt spectroscopy of neutron-rich nuclei produced in the neutron-capture induced-fission of 235U and 241Pu. In addition LaBr3 detectors from the FATIMA collaboration have been installed in complement with the EXOGAM clovers to measure lifetimes of low-lying excited states. The measured characteristics and online spectra indicate very good performances of the overall setup.

EXOGAM at the ILL: the EXILL campaign

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de France, G.; Blanc, A.; Drouet, F.; Jentschel, M.; Köster, U.; Mutti, P.; Régis, J. M.; Simpson, G.; Soldner, T.; Stezowski, O.; Ur, C. A.; Urban, W.; Vancrayenest, A.

2018-02-01

A combination of germanium detectors has been installed at the PF1B neutron guide of the ILL to perform the prompt spectroscopy of neutron-rich nuclei produced in the neutron-capture induced-fission of 235U and 241Pu. Radiative capture reactions on rare targets have also been performed. LaBr3 detectors from the FATIMA collaboration have also been installed in complement with the EXOGAM clovers to measure lifetimes of low-lying excited states. The measured characteristics indicate very good performances of the overall setup. Some recent results will be discussed.

KSC-04PD-1680

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. In the Orbiter Processing Facility, workers help guide the nose cap (right) toward the orbiter Atlantis for installation. The nose cap was removed from the vehicle in May and sent back to the vendor for thorough Non- Destructive Engineering evaluation and recoating. Thermography was also performed to check for internal flaws. This procedure uses high intensity light to heat areas that are immediately scanned with an infrared camera. White Thermal Protection System blankets were reinstalled on the nose cap before installation. Processing continues on Atlantis for its future mission to the International Space Station.

JPRS Report, Soviet Union, Foreign Military Review, No. 5, May 1987

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-09-18

which can carry up to 16 Hellfire missiles with semi-active laser homing devices (maximum range of 6,000 m). The presence of good flight and technical...will have laser -guided control systems, that is, will retain the link between the missile and the launch installation right up to impact on target as...antitank missile system to replace the Milan system in the 1990s. The control system with a laser -guided homing device also has been accepted for

Stargazing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, Patrick

2000-10-01

On a clear night, the vastness and beauty of the star-filled sky is awe inspiring. In Stargazing: Astronomy without a Telescope Patrick Moore, Britain's best known astronomer, tells you all you need to know about the universe visible to the naked eye. With the aid of charts and illustrations, he explains how to "read" the stars, to know which constellations lie overhead, their trajectory throughout the seasons, and the legends ascribed to them. In a month-by-month guide he describes using detailed star maps of the night skies of both the northern and southern hemispheres. He also takes a look at the planets, the Sun and the Moon and their eclipses, comets, meteors, as well as aurorae and other celestial phenomena--all in accessible scientific detail. This captivating book shows how, even with just the naked eye, astronomy can be a fascinating and rewarding hobby--for life.

A Synthesis of Star Calibration Techniques for Ground-Based Narrowband Electron-Multiplying Charge-Coupled Device Imagers Used in Auroral Photometry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grubbs, Guy II; Michell, Robert; Samara, Marilia; Hampton, Don; Jahn, Jorg-Micha

2016-01-01

A technique is presented for the periodic and systematic calibration of ground-based optical imagers. It is important to have a common system of units (Rayleighs or photon flux) for cross comparison as well as self-comparison over time. With the advancement in technology, the sensitivity of these imagers has improved so that stars can be used for more precise calibration. Background subtraction, flat fielding, star mapping, and other common techniques are combined in deriving a calibration technique appropriate for a variety of ground-based imager installations. Spectral (4278, 5577, and 8446 A ) ground-based imager data with multiple fields of view (19, 47, and 180 deg) are processed and calibrated using the techniques developed. The calibration techniques applied result in intensity measurements in agreement between different imagers using identical spectral filtering, and the intensity at each wavelength observed is within the expected range of auroral measurements. The application of these star calibration techniques, which convert raw imager counts into units of photon flux, makes it possible to do quantitative photometry. The computed photon fluxes, in units of Rayleighs, can be used for the absolute photometry between instruments or as input parameters for auroral electron transport models.

Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER)

NASA Image and Video Library

2017-12-08

NICER engineer Steven Kenyon prepares seven of the 56 X-ray concentrators for installation in the NICER instrument. The payload’s 56 mirror assemblies concentrate X-rays onto silicon detectors to gather data that will probe the interior makeup of neutron stars, including those that appear to flash regularly, called pulsars. The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is a NASA Explorer Mission of Opportunity dedicated to studying the extraordinary environments — strong gravity, ultra-dense matter, and the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe — embodied by neutron stars. An attached payload aboard the International Space Station, NICER will deploy an instrument with unique capabilities for timing and spectroscopy of fast X-ray brightness fluctuations. The embedded Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology demonstration (SEXTANT) will use NICER data to validate, for the first time in space, technology that exploits pulsars as natural navigation beacons. Credit: NASA/Goddard/ Keith Gendreau NASA image use policy. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Find us on Instagram

Disks and Outflows Around Young Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beckwith, Steven; Staude, Jakob; Quetz, Axel; Natta, Antonella

The subject of the book, the ubiquitous circumstellar disks around very young stars and the corresponding jets of outflowing matter, has recently become one of the hottest areas in astrophysics. The disks are thought to be precursors to planetary systems, and the outflows are thought to be a necessary phase in the formation of a young star, helping the star to get rid of angular momentum and energy as it makes its way onto the main sequence. The possible connections to planetary systems and stellar astrophysics makes these topics especially broad, appealing to generalists and specialists alike. The CD not only contains papers that could not be printed in the book but allows the authors to include a fair amount of data, often displayed as color images. The CD-ROM contains all the contributions printed in the corresponding book (Lecture Notes in Physics Vol. 465) and, in addition, those presented exclusively in digital form. Each contribution consists of a file in portable document format (PDF). The electronic version allows full-text searching within each file using Adobe's Acrobat Reader providing instructions for installation on Unix (Sun), PC and Macintosh computers, respectively. All contributions can be printed out; the color diagrams and color frames, which are printed in black and white in the book, can be viewed in color on screen.

User's guide to the Octopus computer network (the SHOC manual)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schneider, C.; Thompson, D.; Whitten, G.

1977-07-18

This guide explains how to enter, run, and debug programs on the Octopus network. It briefly describes the network's operation, and directs the reader to other documents for further information. It stresses those service programs that will be most useful in the long run; ''quick'' methods that have little flexibility are not discussed. The Octopus timesharing network gives the user access to four CDC 7600 computers, two CDC STAR computers, and a broad array of peripheral equipment, from any of 800 or so remote terminals. 16 figures, 7 tables.

User's guide to the Octopus computer network (the SHOC manual)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schneider, C.; Thompson, D.; Whitten, G.

1976-10-07

This guide explains how to enter, run, and debug programs on the Octopus network. It briefly describes the network's operation, and directs the reader to other documents for further information. It stresses those service programs that will be most useful in the long run; ''quick'' methods that have little flexibility are not discussed. The Octopus timesharing network gives the user access to four CDC 7600 computers, two CDC STAR computers, and a broad array of peripheral equipment, from any of 800 or so remote terminals. 8 figures, 4 tables.

User's guide to the Octopus computer network (the SHOC manual)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schneider, C.; Thompson, D.; Whitten, G.

1975-06-02

This guide explains how to enter, run, and debug programs on the Octopus network. It briefly describes the network's operation, and directs the reader to other documents for further information. It stresses those service programs that will be most useful in the long run; ''quick'' methods that have little flexibility are not discussed. The Octopus timesharing network gives the user access to four CDC 7600 computers and a broad array of peripheral equipment, from any of 800 remote terminals. Octopus will soon include the Laboratory's STAR-100 computers. 9 figures, 5 tables. (auth)

Adaptive acoustic energy delivery to near and far fields using foldable, tessellated star transducers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zou, Chengzhe; Harne, Ryan L.

2017-05-01

Methods of guiding acoustic energy arbitrarily through space have long relied on digital controls to meet performance needs. Yet, more recent attention to adaptive structures with unique spatial configurations has motivated mechanical signal processing (MSP) concepts that may not be subjected to the same functional and performance limitations as digital acoustic beamforming counterparts. The periodicity of repeatable structural reconfiguration enabled by origami-inspired tessellated architectures turns attention to foldable platforms as frameworks for MSP development. This research harnesses principles of MSP to study a tessellated, star-shaped acoustic transducer constituent that provides on-demand control of acoustic energy guiding via folding-induced shape reconfiguration. An analytical framework is established to probe the roles of mechanical and acoustic geometry on the far field directivity and near field focusing of sound energy. Following validation by experiments and verification by simulations, parametric studies are undertaken to uncover relations between constituent topology and acoustic energy delivery to arbitrary points in the free field. The adaptations enabled by folding of the star-shaped transducer reveal capability for restricting sound energy to angular regions in the far field while also introducing means to modulate sound energy by three orders-of-magnitude to locations near to the transducer surface. In addition, the modeling philosophy devised here provides a valuable approach to solve general sound radiation problems for foldable, tessellated acoustic transducer constituents of arbitrary geometry.

The Planning and Scheduling of HST: Improvements and Enhancements since Launch

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taylor, D. K.; Chance, D. R.; Jordan, I. J. E.; Patterson, A. P.; Stanley, M.; Taylor, D. C.

2001-12-01

The planning and scheduling (P&S) systems used in operating the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have undergone such substantial and pervasive re-engineering that today they dimly resemble those used when HST was launched. Processes (i.e., software, procedures, networking, etc.) which allow program implementation, the generation of a Long Range Plan (LRP), and the scheduling of science and mission activities have improved drastically in nearly 12 years, resulting in a consistently high observing efficiency, a stable LRP that principal investigators can use, exceptionally clean command loads uplinked to the spacecraft, and the capability of a very fast response time due to onboard anomalies or targets of opportunity. In this presentation we describe many of the systems which comprise the P&S ("front-end") system for HST, how and why they were improved, and what benefits have been realized by either the HST user community or the STScI staff. The systems include the Guide Star System, the Remote Proposal Submission System - 2 (RPS2), Artificial Intelligence (AI) planning tools such as Spike, and the science and mission scheduling software. We also describe how using modern software languages such as Python and better development practices allow STScI staff to do more with HST (e.g., to handle much more science data when ACS is installed) without increasing the cost to HST operations.

76 FR 1619 - Proposed Information Collection Activity; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-11

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Administration for Children and Families [OMB No. 0970... Automated Child Welfare Information System (SACWIS) Assessment Review Guide. Description: The Department of..., development, or installation of statewide automated child welfare systems (SACWIS). The data from these...

Netbook User’s Guide and Installation Manual.

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-01-31

The general purpose of Netbook is to add value to the information available online, by developing a collaborative environment within which that...information can be effectively accessed, stored, annotated, and structured. Netbook is a prototype tool that provides users with the capacity for

Design criteria monograph on transmission seals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hayden, T. S.; Keller, C. H., Jr.

1975-01-01

Guide is based on experience obtained in wide variety of applications using lip, circumferential, and face seals. Particular attention is given to capabilities and lubrication of various seal types. Special limitations as a result of storage requirements, quality control, installation, operation, and removal are discussed.

45 CFR 307.1 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... system means the hardware, operational software, applications software and electronic linkages in an... further defined in the OCSE guideline entitled “Automated Systems for Child Support Enforcement: A Guide... training, testing, and conversion plans to install the computer system. (j) The following terms are defined...

45 CFR 307.1 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... system means the hardware, operational software, applications software and electronic linkages in an... further defined in the OCSE guideline entitled “Automated Systems for Child Support Enforcement: A Guide... training, testing, and conversion plans to install the computer system. (j) The following terms are defined...

45 CFR 307.1 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... system means the hardware, operational software, applications software and electronic linkages in an... further defined in the OCSE guideline entitled “Automated Systems for Child Support Enforcement: A Guide... training, testing, and conversion plans to install the computer system. (j) The following terms are defined...

45 CFR 307.1 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... system means the hardware, operational software, applications software and electronic linkages in an... further defined in the OCSE guideline entitled “Automated Systems for Child Support Enforcement: A Guide... training, testing, and conversion plans to install the computer system. (j) The following terms are defined...

45 CFR 307.1 - Definitions.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... system means the hardware, operational software, applications software and electronic linkages in an... further defined in the OCSE guideline entitled “Automated Systems for Child Support Enforcement: A Guide... training, testing, and conversion plans to install the computer system. (j) The following terms are defined...

A Question and Answer Guide to Astronomy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Christian, Carol; Roy, Jean-René

2017-03-01

Preface; 1. The sky viewed from Earth; 2. The Earth and Moon system; 3. The Solar System; 4. Stars and stellar systems; 5. Galaxies and the Universe; 6. Life in the Universe; 7. Amateur astronomy; 8. Telescopes and instruments; Unit conversion and basic physical and astronomical measurements; References; Bibliography; Index.

In the Wake of Our Ancestors.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Low, Sam

2003-01-01

To understand and revive the ancient Hawaiian culture, the crew of a traditional Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe sails among the Pacific Islands without charts or instruments. Trained by Western science, elders, and experience, the navigator guides the craft by the stars and dead reckoning. Each voyage is linked to Hawaiian classroom…

Hawaii: Navigating a Different Way of Knowing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thuermer, Kitty

1999-01-01

Seafarer Nainoa Thompson proved Western scientists wrong when they claimed his Pacific Island ancestors lacked the navigational skills to make their 2,500 mile trans-Pacific voyages, guided only by the stars and the sea. In the same way, schools must model different, more affiliative ways of gaining and imparting knowledge. (MLH)

Software Development for Asteroid and Variable Star Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sweckard, Teaghen; Clason, Timothy; Kenney, Jessica; Wuerker, Wolfgang; Palser, Sage; Giles, Tucker; Linder, Tyler; Sanchez, Richard

2018-01-01

The process of collecting and analyzing light curves from variable stars and asteroids is almost identical. In 2016 a collaboration was created to develop a simple fundamental way to study both asteroids and variable stars using methods that would allow the process to be repeated by middle school and high school students.Using robotic telescopes at Cerro Tololo (Chile), Yerkes Observatory (US), and Stone Edge Observatory (US) data were collected on RV Del and three asteroids. It was discovered that the only available software program which could be easily installed on lab computers was MPO Canopus. However, after six months it was determined that MPO Canopus was not an acceptable option because of the steep learning curve, lack of documentation and technical support.Therefore, the project decided that the best option was to design our own python based software. Using python and python libraries we developed code that can be used for photometry and can be easily changed to the user's needs. We accomplished this by meeting with our mentor astronomer, Tyler Linder, and in the beginning wrote two different programs, one for asteroids and one for variable stars. In the end, though, we chose to combine codes so that the program would be capable of performing photometry for both moving and static objects.The software performs differential photometry by comparing the magnitude of known reference stars to the object being studied. For asteroids, the image timestamps are used to obtain ephemeris of the asteroid from JPL Horizons automatically.

Modeling Indications of Technology in Planetary Transit Light Curves-Dark-side Illumination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korpela, Eric J.; Sallmen, Shauna M.; Leystra Greene, Diana

2015-08-01

We analyze potential effects of an extraterrestrial civilization’s use of orbiting mirrors to illuminate the dark side of a synchronously rotating planet on planetary transit light curves. Previous efforts to detect civilizations based on side effects of planetary-scale engineering have focused on structures affecting the host star output (e.g., Dyson spheres). However, younger civilizations are likely to be less advanced in their engineering efforts, yet still capable of sending small spacecraft into orbit. Since M dwarfs are the most common type of star in the solar neighborhood, it seems plausible that many of the nearest habitable planets orbit dim, low-mass M stars, and will be in synchronous rotation. Logically, a civilization evolving on such a planet may be inspired to illuminate their planet’s dark side by placing a single large mirror at the L2 Lagrangian point, or launching a fleet of small thin mirrors into planetary orbit. We briefly examine the requirements and engineering challenges of such a collection of orbiting mirrors, then explore their impact on transit light curves. We incorporate stellar limb darkening and model a simplistic mirror fleet’s effects for transits of Earth-like (R = 0.5 to 2 {R}{Earth}) planets which would be synchronously rotating for orbits within the habitable zone of their host star. Although such an installation is undetectable in Kepler data, the James Webb Space Telescope will provide the sensitivity necessary to detect a fleet of mirrors orbiting Earth-like habitable planets around nearby stars.

Floating Chip Mounting System Driven by Repulsive Force of Permanent Magnets for Multiple On-Site SPR Immunoassay Measurements

PubMed Central

Horiuchi, Tsutomu; Tobita, Tatsuya; Miura, Toru; Iwasaki, Yuzuru; Seyama, Michiko; Inoue, Suzuyo; Takahashi, Jun-ichi; Haga, Tsuneyuki; Tamechika, Emi

2012-01-01

We have developed a measurement chip installation/removal mechanism for a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) immunoassay analysis instrument designed for frequent testing, which requires a rapid and easy technique for changing chips. The key components of the mechanism are refractive index matching gel coated on the rear of the SPR chip and a float that presses the chip down. The refractive index matching gel made it possible to optically couple the chip and the prism of the SPR instrument easily via elastic deformation with no air bubbles. The float has an autonomous attitude control function that keeps the chip parallel in relation to the SPR instrument by employing the repulsive force of permanent magnets between the float and a float guide located in the SPR instrument. This function is realized by balancing the upward elastic force of the gel and the downward force of the float, which experiences a leveling force from the float guide. This system makes it possible to start an SPR measurement immediately after chip installation and to remove the chip immediately after the measurement with a simple and easy method that does not require any fine adjustment. Our sensor chip, which we installed using this mounting system, successfully performed an immunoassay measurement on a model antigen (spiked human-IgG) in a model real sample (non-homogenized milk) that included many kinds of interfering foreign substances without any sample pre-treatment. The ease of the chip installation/removal operation and simple measurement procedure are suitable for frequent on-site agricultural, environmental and medical testing. PMID:23202030

The first US Naval Observatory CCD Astrograph Catalog

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Germain, M. E.; Zacharias, N.; Urban, S. E.; Rafferty, T. J.; Holdenried, E. R.; Zacharias, M. I.; Hall, D. M.; Wycoff, G. L.; Monet, D. G.

2000-05-01

The USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog (UCAC) project is a high precision, astrometric survey of stars having R magnitudes between 7th and 16th. The positional accuracy is 20 mas for stars between 9th and 14th, and 70 mas for fainter stars. This gives a density (stars per square degree) higher than that of the Guide Star Catalog (GSC), with an improvement in positional accuracy of about a factor of ten. Observations began in January 1998 at Cerro Tololo Inter--American Observatory (CTIO) using a five-element 0.2 meter astrograph equipped with a 4k by 4k CCD. The instrument will be moved north in early 2001, and full sky coverage is expected by early 2003. A preliminary catalog (UCAC1) of positions and proper motions of 27 million stars has been constructed which is available on CD-ROM from USNO. Observations between 13 Feb 1998 and 07 Nov 1999 are included with a total of over 79,000 CCD frames covering 80% of the Southern Hemisphere. The catalog is on the International Celestial Reference System (ICRS), which is consistent with J2000. Proper motions of bright stars (V <= 12.5) were derived using a combination of ground-based astrometric catalogs, Hipparcos, and Tycho-2 positions, giving a typical error of 3 mas/yr. For the fainter stars the USNO A2.0 (Monet, 1998) was used as first epoch, with typical proper motion errors of 10 to 15 mas/yr. External comparisons with Tycho-2 and the Yale Southern Proper Motion (SPM) 2.0 data reveal systematic errors to be only on the 10 mas level.

KSC-2011-7868

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-16

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Inside a Pegasus booster processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, technicians install the first of three fins on the aft end of the Pegasus XL rocket's first stage. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket will launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on the Orbital Sciences’ L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

KSC-2011-7769

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-10

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- At a Pegasus booster processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, using a crane, technicians install the second section of the aft skirt on the Pegasus XL rocket’s first stage. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket will launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on the Orbital Sciences’ L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

KSC-2011-7766

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-10

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- At a Pegasus booster processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, using a crane, technicians move a section of the aft skirt toward the Pegasus XL rocket for installation to the rocket’s first stage. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket will launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on the Orbital Sciences’ L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

KSC-2011-7767

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-11-10

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- At a Pegasus booster processing facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, using a crane, technicians install a section of the aft skirt on the Pegasus XL rocket’s first stage. The Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus rocket will launch the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) into space. After the rocket and spacecraft are processed at Vandenberg, they will be flown on the Orbital Sciences’ L-1011 carrier aircraft to the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at the Pacific Ocean’s Kwajalein Atoll for launch. The high-energy x-ray telescope will conduct a census for black holes, map radioactive material in young supernovae remnants, and study the origins of cosmic rays and the extreme physics around collapsed stars. For more information, visit science.nasa.gov/missions/nustar/. Photo credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin, VAFB

KSC-2009-2947

NASA Image and Video Library

2009-05-06

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – An X-band radar waits to be installed on the U.S. Army landing craft utility ship Brandy Station in Port Canaveral, Fla. The radar will provide critical support during launch of space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-125 mission. The radar will work with smaller X-band radars placed on the solid rocket booster retrieval ship Liberty Star to provide extremely high-resolution images of any debris that might be created during Atlantis' launch. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Lucky imaging multiplicity studies of exoplanet host stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ginski, C.; Mugrauer, M.; Neuhäuser, R.

2014-03-01

The multiplicity of stars is an important parameter in order to understand star and planet formation. In the past decades extrasolar planets have been discovered around more than 600 stars with the radial velocity and transit techniques. Many of these systems present extreme cases of massive planetary objects at very close separations to their primary stars. To explain the configurations of such systems is hence a continued challenge in the development of formation theories. It will be very interesting to determine if there are significant differences between planets in single and multiple star systems. In our ongoing study we use high resolution imaging techniques to clarify the multiplicity status of nearby (within 250 pc) planet host stars. For targets on the northern hemisphere we employ the lucky imaging instrument Astralux at the 2.2 m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory. The lucky imaging approach consists of taking several thousand short images with integration times shorter than the speckle coherence time, to sample the speckle variations during the observation window. We then only choose the so called "lucky shots" with a very high Strehl ratio in one of the speckles, to shift and add, resulting in a final image with the highest possible Strehl ratio and therefore highest possible angular resolution. We will present recent results of our study at the Calar Alto Observatory, as well as observations undertaken with the RTK camera at the 20 cm guiding telescope in our own observatory in Großschwabhausen.

Adaptive Optics For Imaging Bright Objects Next To Dim Ones

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shao, Michael; Yu, Jeffrey W.; Malbet, Fabien

1996-01-01

Adaptive optics used in imaging optical systems, according to proposal, to enhance high-dynamic-range images (images of bright objects next to dim objects). Designed to alter wavefronts to correct for effects of scattering of light from small bumps on imaging optics. Original intended application of concept in advanced camera installed on Hubble Space Telescope for imaging of such phenomena as large planets near stars other than Sun. Also applicable to other high-quality telescopes and cameras.

A Three-dimensional Simulation of a Magnetized Accretion Disk: Fast Funnel Accretion onto a Weakly Magnetized Star

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takasao, Shinsuke; Tomida, Kengo; Iwasaki, Kazunari; Suzuki, Takeru K.

2018-04-01

We present the results of a global, three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulation of an accretion disk with a rotating, weakly magnetized central star. The disk is threaded by a weak, large-scale poloidal magnetic field, and the central star has no strong stellar magnetosphere initially. Our simulation investigates the structure of the accretion flows from a turbulent accretion disk onto the star. The simulation reveals that fast accretion onto the star at high latitudes occurs even without a stellar magnetosphere. We find that the failed disk wind becomes the fast, high-latitude accretion as a result of angular momentum exchange mediated by magnetic fields well above the disk, where the Lorentz force that decelerates the rotational motion of gas can be comparable to the centrifugal force. Unlike the classical magnetospheric accretion scenario, fast accretion streams are not guided by magnetic fields of the stellar magnetosphere. Nevertheless, the accretion velocity reaches the free-fall velocity at the stellar surface due to the efficient angular momentum loss at a distant place from the star. This study provides a possible explanation why Herbig Ae/Be stars whose magnetic fields are generally not strong enough to form magnetospheres also show indications of fast accretion. A magnetically driven jet is not formed from the disk in our model. The differential rotation cannot generate sufficiently strong magnetic fields for the jet acceleration because the Parker instability interrupts the field amplification.

Measure Guideline: Combined Space and Water Heating Installation and Optimization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schoenbauer, B.; Bohac, D.; Huelman, P.

Combined space and water heater (combi or combo) systems are defined by their dual functionality. Combi systems provide both space heating and water heating capabilities with a single heat source. This guideline will focus on the installation and operation of residential systems with forced air heating and domestic hot water (DHW) functionality. Past NorthernSTAR research has used a combi system to replace a natural gas forced air distribution system furnace and tank type water heater (Schoenbauer et al. 2012; Schoenbauer, Bohac, and McAlpine 2014). The combi systems consisted of a water heater or boiler heating plant teamed with a hydronicmore » air handler that included an air handler, water coil, and water pump to circulate water between the heating plant and coil. The combi water heater or boiler had a separate circuit for DHW. Past projects focused on laboratory testing, field characterization, and control optimization of combi systems. Laboratory testing was done to fully characterize and test combi system components; field testing was completed to characterize the installed performance of combi systems; and control methodologies were analyzed to understand the potential of controls to simplify installation and design and to improve system efficiency and occupant comfort. This past work was relied upon on to create this measure guideline.« less

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Primary Mirror Fully Assembled

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-02-04

The 18th and final primary mirror segment is installed on what will be the biggest and most powerful space telescope ever launched. The final mirror installation Wednesday at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland marks an important milestone in the assembly of the agency’s James Webb Space Telescope. “Scientists and engineers have been working tirelessly to install these incredible, nearly perfect mirrors that will focus light from previously hidden realms of planetary atmospheres, star forming regions and the very beginnings of the Universe,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “With the mirrors finally complete, we are one step closer to the audacious observations that will unravel the mysteries of the Universe.” Using a robotic arm reminiscent of a claw machine, the team meticulously installed all of Webb's primary mirror segments onto the telescope structure. Each of the hexagonal-shaped mirror segments measures just over 4.2 feet (1.3 meters) across -- about the size of a coffee table -- and weighs approximately 88 pounds (40 kilograms). Once in space and fully deployed, the 18 primary mirror segments will work together as one large 21.3-foot diameter (6.5-meter) mirror. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Gunn Credits: NASA/Chris Gunn