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 Agenda

LIGHT BUCKET ASTRONOMY CONFERENCE
Technology Developments and Research Programs

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Headquarters, Waimea, Big Island of Hawaii

 
31 December 2010 - 2 January 2011

Co-Chairs
Russ Genet (Calif. Polytechnic State Univ.), and Bruce Holenstein (Gravic, Inc.)
Local Hosts
Josh Walawender (Univ. of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy), and Sarah Gajardhar (CFHT)
Conference Webmaster
Cheryl Genet

Mauna Loa / Mauna Kea pre-conference tours - 29/30 December
Volcanoes National Park post-conference tour -  3 January
»» Talk slide pdfs and audio-visuals ««
are linked beside the speakers on the list below

Conference Goals

 

The goals of the conference are two fold.  First, to explore how new technologies can be applied to developing lightweight, low cost, meter class “light bucket” telescopes and their instrumentation.  Second, to describe the scientific research programs that would most benefit from telescopes which are so low in initial and operational cost that entire telescopes or even arrays of telescopes can be dedicated to specific research programs.

 

What is light bucket astronomy?

 

 

Jacquelyn Mitton, in the Cambridge Dictionary of Astronomy (2001), defines a light bucket asA colloquial expression for a flux collector.”  She defines a flux collector, in turn, asA telescope designed solely to collect radiation in order to measure its intensity or to carry out spectral analysis,” mentioning that, “No attempt is made to form an image so a flux collector can have a more crudely figured reflective surface than a conventional telescope.”  We have extended Mitton’s light bucket definition to include photometric CCD “imaging” with low quality, low cost optics (typically one wave or less as opposed to quarter wave or better optics). 

 

Light bucket telescopes excel in comparison with smaller aperture, more expensive, diffraction-limited telescopes when the sky background is a small or nearly negligible source of noise. This situation can occur when: (1) the object being observed is very bright, (2) the integration times are very short and hence photon arrival noise becomes important, (3) scintillation noise becomes a dominant noise source, (4) the bandwidth is very narrow or the light is spread out as in spectroscopy resulting in significant photon arrival noise, or (5) noise from the detector is dominant, as it can be in the near infrared.

 

Science programs well suited for light bucket astronomy include: many high speed phenomena, including lunar and asteroid occultations; fast cadence, high precision CCD photometry; near infrared diaphragm-limiting or area photometry; low to medium resolution spectroscopy; and polarimetry. Finally, we note that an array of a half-dozen light bucket telescopes equipped with very high speed photometers could, with their many two-telescope combinations, provide images of the surfaces of nearby stars via intensity interferometry—a quantum-mechanical effect that occurs at sub-nanosecond timescales.   Such an array would be a modern extension of Hanbury Brown’s pioneering research, decades ago, with his two-telescope interferometer in Narrabri, Australia.


 

Conference Talks
 

Special Talk
Kepler: Are There Any Good Worlds Out There? Jon Jenkens 
Talk slides  Music

Light Bucket Astronomy
Light Bucket Astronomy, Russ Genet and Bruce Holenstein 
Talk slides
Visions for Large Light Buckets, Russ Genet and Bruce Holenstein 
Talk slides
Aberration Theory and Prototype Mirror Experiments, Bruce Holenstein 
Talk slides
Signal-to-Noise of Program Object Measures, Bruce Holenstein 
Talk slides

Innovation
Innovation and the American Amateur Spirit, Jack Hitt   Talks slides
The Other Side of Innovation, Chris Trimble 
Talk slides

Meter Class Portable Telescopes
Portable Computerized 1 Meter Telescope, Russ Genet, and Reed and Chris Estrada 
Talk slides
Meniscus Mirror Portable Telescope, Olivier Guyon 
Portable 1 Meter Telescope, Mike Connelley

Kilns and Slumping
Low Cost Kilns, David Davis and Andrew Aurigema 
Talk slides
A Kiln for Slumping Mirrors, Olivier Guyon.  

Foam Glass Composite Mirrors
Foam Glass Composite Mirrors, Andrew Aurigema 
Talk slides  Video links
Lightweight Mirror Experiments, David Davis 
Talk slides  Video links
Tessellated Foam Glass Mirrors, David Davis 
Talk slides

Mirror Coating Technologies
Deposition Silvering, Sagar Venkateswaran 
Talk slides
Silvering and Overcoating Experiments, Bruce Holenstein, Sagar Venkateswaran,
                                                                 Mike Holenstein, and Dylan Holenstein  
Talk slides
Introduction to Sol-Gel Processes, Lisa Brodhacker  
Talk slides

Passive and Active Primary Mirror Support Systems
Low Cost Air Bag Mirror Support System, Steve Taylor 
Talk slides
Active Primary Mirror Support Experiment, Mike Connelley 
Talk slides
Low Cost Fixed and Bimorph Correctors, Bruce Holenstein 
Talk slides

Telescope and Observatory Control Systems
Sidereal Technology Control System Developments, Dan Gray 
Talk slides  Movie
Dedicated Systems: Small Telescopes in the Era of Big Science, Josh Walawender 
Talk slides
The Case for Automated Telescopes, Josh Walawender  
Talk slides

Near Infrared Aperture Photometry
Progress Report on a J/H(Ks) Aperture Photometer, Greg Jones 
Talk slides
Telescope Design Considerations for Near Infrared Photometry, Mike Connelley 
 Talk slides

High Time Resolution Photometry
Experiments with High Speed Cameras, Bruce Holenstein 
Talk slides
A High Speed Electrometer for Photodiode Photometers, Bruce Holenstein 
Talk slides
Methods for Time Stamping Analog and Digital Video, Frank Suits 
Talk slides
Occultation Timing Accuracy: Dependence on Frame Rate and S/N, Frank Suits 
Talk slides

Occultation Photometry
Missions for Portable Meter Class Telescopes, David Dunham 
Talk slides
Lunar Occultation Theory and Practice, Bruce Holenstein 
Talk slides
Observing Trans-Neptunian Objects with Portable Telescopes, Marc Buie 
Talk slides
Portable Occultation Telescope Requirements, EliotYoung 
Talk slides  
Portable Occultation Systems for Studies of Pluto and Triton, Leslie Young and Cathy Olkin
Talkslides    Webslides   (These are large file so please be patient)

Special thanks to Bruce Holenstein's friends
Jonathan and Nancy Sechrist at Makahiki Farms
for sponsoring the special
“Dark Night Observing” roast Kona coffee
for the conference
http://www.makahikifarms.com

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