Arturo Iriarte

Dual infrared camera for near and mid infrared observations

We present the dual IR camera CID for the 2.12 m telescope of the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional de Mexico, IA-UNAM. The system consists of two separate cameras/spectrographs that operate in different regions of the IR spectrum. In the near IR, CID comprises a direct imaging camera with wide band filters, a CVF, and a low resolution spectrograph employing an InSb 256 x 256 detector. In the mid IR, CID uses a BIB 128 x 128 detector for direct imaging in 10 and 20 microns. Optics and mechanics of CID were developed at IR-Labs (Tucson). The electronics was developed by R. Leach (S. Diego). General design, construction of auxiliary optics (oscillating secondary mirror), necessary modifications and optimization of the electronics, and acquisition software were carried out at OAN/ UNAM. The compact design of the instruments allow them to share a single dewar and the cryogenics system.

Monitoring at TeV Energies with M@TE

Blazars are extremely variable objects emitting radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum and showing variability on time scales from minutes to years. Simultaneous multi-wavelength observations are crucial for understanding the emission mechanisms. In particular the study of their TeV emission is relevant to test the dominant radiative process at such energies (e.g. leptonic models predict a correlation between X-ray and TeV emission). As well, the correlation with the bump at low energy or the possible common detection with a neutrino signal can be relevant to constrain the physical model. From radio via optical and from X-ray to gamma rays, a variety of instruments, as OVRO and Fermi, are already monitoring blazars. At TeV energies, long-term monitoring is currently carried out by HAWC and FACT. Towards 24/7 continuous observations, the goal is to have similar monitoring telescopes at locations around the globe in order to close temporal gaps and compile light curves with homogeneous sensitivity. With the M@TE (Monitoring at TeV energies) project, we are planning to install an Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescope equipped with an improved version of the FACT camera and the mechanical structure of one of the mounts of the HEGRA experiment at the site of San Pedro Martir in Mexico. Featuring excellent observation conditions, this location provides a variety of instruments from radio to optical wavelength allowing for coordinated multi-wavelength blazar studies. In this work, we will present the status of the project.

A system for the characterization of the HAWC PMTs sensitivity

The HAWC Project is a very high-energy gamma-ray observatory under construction at the Sierra Negra volcano (4100 meters above sea level) in the Pico de Orizaba National Park located in central Mexico. HAWC will reuse the 900 Hamamatsu R5912 photomultipliers (PMTs) from Milagro Observatory for the 300 Water Cherenkov Detectors. In order to characterize their present performance it is necessary to scan the active area of the photocathode by measuring its efficiency and gain. A characterization system was designed and manufactured to achieve an automated measurement of over 100 points distributed on the PMT active spherical surface. Preliminary results show the variation of QE of PMTs with respect of the position of incoming photons, as well as the changes in the PMTs response due to the Earths magnetic field and gain vs. high voltage. The system allows automated PMT characterization improving its performance, reliability, precision and repeatability. In this work we present the characterization system and preliminary results on the PMT efficiency.

A water quality monitoring system for HAWC

HAWC (High Altitude Water Cherenkov), is a gamma ray (γ) large aperture observatory with high sensitivity that will be able to continuously monitor the sky for transient sources of photons with energies between 100 GeV and 100 TeV. HAWC is under construction in Sierra Negra, Puebla, Mexico, which is located at a high altitude of 4100m. HAWC will be an array of 300 Cherenkov detectors each one with 200,000 liters of highly pure water. The sensitivity of the instrument depends strongly on the water quality. We present the design and construction of the HAWC water quality monitoring system. We seek monitor the transparency in violet-blue range to achieve and maintain the required water transparency quality in each detector. The system is robust and user friendly. The measurements are reproducible. Also we present some results from the monitoring the water from the VAMOS detector tanks and of the filtering system.

GUIELOA, the Mexican adaptive optics system: expected performance and operation

We describe progress in the construction of an adaptive optics system for the 2.1 meter telescope of the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional on Sierra San Pedro Martir, in Baja California, Mexico. The system will use a 19 element bimorph deformable mirror mounted on an articulated platform and a curvature wavefront sensor with natural guide stars. It will have two modes of operation. In adaptive optics mode, it is expected to give excellent correction above 1.0 μm and good correction down to 0.6-0.9 μm, depending on the seeing, although the sky coverage will be limited. In fast guiding mode, the system should give images at or better than the excellent natural seeing of the site and have much greater sky coverage. The system is currently undergoing laboratory testing.

NEFER: a high resolution scanning Fabry-Perot spectrograph

The scanning Fabry-Perot spectrograph could give highly accurate, kinematical information of star forming regions (HH objects, protoplanetary disks and large scale flows) and the dynamics of isolated and interacting galaxies (resonances, galaxy pairs, compact groups). In this project we are developing a high spectral resolution scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer for the GTC 10 m telescope and the OSIRIS instrument. The system will provide the following characteristics: high spectral resolution data (R up to 20000) over a whole field of view of approximate 8 × 8 arcmin, 0.125 arcsec pixel size in two spectral ranges; 6300 to 7000 Å (galactic projects) and 8000 to 9500 Å (OTELO objects kinematics). ICOS ET100 Fabry-Perot will be used and installed within the OSIRIS collimated beam in the filter wheel hosting the tunable filters. Several acquisition software features have been defined like: synchronizing Fabry-Perot scanning with image acquisition, data cube assembly; single frame or data cube files would be provided according to the observer data reduction process. Fabry-Perot plates parallelism is extremely important to improve Finesse. Our team has developed an algorithm to accomplish this task.

A DSP-based infrared and optical bidimensional detectors controller

The Institute of Astronomy at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México have developed and tested a CCD controller based on Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processor (DSP) TMS30C31@50MHz. Images are temporally stored in a 2MB static RAM attached to the DSP and transferred to the host computer running under Linux. Both tasks, acquisition and timing, are programmable so it can be conditioned to control any bidimensional detector. Analog voltage for bias, offsets and gains are fully programmable also. The system has been tested on an infrared Hawaii detector and fast Marconi 80x80 pixels CCD.

Tonantzintla's Observatory Astronomy Teaching Laboratory project

In the last two years the National Observatory at Tonantzintla Puebla, México (OAN Tonantzintla), has been undergoing several facilities upgrades in order to bring to the observatory suitable conditions to operate as a modern Observational Astronomy Teaching Laboratory. In this paper, we present the management, requirement definition and project advances. We made a quantitative diagnosis about of the functionality of the Tonantzintla Observatory (mainly based in the 1m f/15 telescope) to take aim to educational objectives. Through this project we are taking the steps to correct, to actualize and to optimize the observatory astronomical instrumentation according to modern techniques of observation. We present the design and the first actions in order to get a better and efficient use of the main astronomical instrumentation, as well as, the telescope itself, for the undergraduate, postgraduate levels Observacional Astronomy students and outreach publics programs for elementary school. The project includes the development of software and hardware components based in as a common framework for the project management. The Observatory is located at 150 km away from the headquarters at the Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IAUNAM), and one of the goals is use this infrastructure for a Remote Observatory System.