Code SS Weekly Highlights November 1, 2017 SMD Space Science & Astrobiology Title of highlight: The Gemini 8-m telescope working on installing new instrument named “Alopeke” POC: Steve Howell (SS Division Chief) Short story: During the week of 22 November 2017, the NASA Ames instrument team days “Alopeke and nights atop 14,000 foot Mauna Kea in Hawaii. (meaning fox in Hawaiian) is a ‘Alopeke custom made imaging camera built for the Gemini-N 8-m telescope. The instrument was completely built in -house and provides a unique imaging capability for the community, allowing simultaneous two-channel operation and both imaging and “speckle” “wide-field” imaging. This instrument provides the highest resolution images of the night sky available today on any single ground-based or space-based telescope, four times that of IR/Ao systems. In the attached photo, (L to R) Rachel Matson, Steve Howell, Nic Scott, and Emmett Quigley take a rest under the 8-m mirror, where they have just installed Also, attached are ‘Alopeke. some Light” reconstructed images showing a close-binary star, separated by 0.3” and “First easily separated by as well as a high-resolution 832nm before and after image taken ‘Alopeke near the center of M15 and yielding 0.18” image quality.
Code SS Weekly Highlights November 1, 2017 SMD Space Science & Astrobiology Title of highlight: The Gemini 8-m telescope working on installing new instrument named “Alopeke” POC: Steve Howell (SS Division Chief) Short story: During the week of 22 November 2017, the NASA Ames “Alopeke instrument team days and nights atop 14,000 foot Mauna Kea in Hawaii. ‘Alopeke (meaning fox in Hawaiian) is a custom made imaging camera built for the Gemini-N 8-m telescope. The instrument was completely built in -house and provides a unique imaging capability for the community, allowing simultaneous two-channel operation and both “speckle” imaging and “wide-field” imaging. This instrument provides the highest resolution images of the night sky available today on any single ground-based or space-based telescope, four times that of IR/Ao systems. In the attached photo, (L to R) Rachel Matson, Steve Howell, Nic Scott, and Emmett Quigley take a rest under the 8-m mirror, where they have just installed ‘Alopeke. Also, attached are some “First Light” reconstructed images showing a close-binary star, separated by 0.3” and easily separated by ‘Alopeke as well as a high-resolution 832nm before and after image taken near the center of M15 and yielding 0.18” image quality.
11.01.17-1.docx