Astro-250/EECS-289-039/ME-289 Syllabus
The class will be taught as a graduate seminar with significant
opportunities for student participation in research projects. The syllabus
will include:
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Scientific needs for next generation O/IR telescopes
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Ground and space telescopes
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Limitations of the atmosphere: transmission and seeing
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Operating wavelengths
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Imaging performance & signal-to-noise
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Interferometry vs single aperture telescopes
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Scientific opportunities of extremely large telescopes
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Solar system
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Extra solar planets
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Galaxies and galaxy evolution
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Cosmic star formation history
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Black holes and quasars
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Exploring the cosmic "dark ages"
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Large Optical/IR telescopes
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Telescope optics & optical design
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Geometric optics
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Two mirror telescopes
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Aberration compensation
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Alignment errors
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Diffraction
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Current generation of large telescopes
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Mirror technology (Tinsley/Lockheed?)
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The primary mirror
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Segmented and monolithic mirrors
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Fabrication and testing of large optics
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Mirror blank materials
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Mirror coatings
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Mirror support
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Secondary and tertiary mirrors
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Active mirrors
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Telescope structures
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Environmental factors
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Gravity, temperature gradients & wind loading
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Theory of active control systems
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Sensors & actuators
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Computational challenges
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Telescope drives, bearings and encoders
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Current designs, costs, tradeoffs
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Lessons learned from Keck/VLT/Gemini telescopes
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Atmospheric seeing/wave propagation in a turbulent medium
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Atmospheric turbulence
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Adaptive optics
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Wavefront sensors
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Wavefront correctors
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Multi-conjugate AO
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Laser beacons
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Telescope enclosures, observatory facilities and site selection
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Environmental factors
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Aerodynamics of domes and telescope structures
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Site characterization, testing and climate prediction
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Instruments for large telescopes
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Detectors for astronomical instruments
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Imagers
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Spectrometers
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Advanced concepts
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Project management
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Systems engineering
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Industrial scale production
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Project management