Maurizio Comari
INAF
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Publication
Featured researches published by Maurizio Comari.
Proceedings of SPIE | 2010
F. Pepe; S. Cristiani; R. López; N. C. Santos; A. Amorim; Gerardo Avila; Willy Benz; P. Bonifacio; Alexandre Cabral; Pedro Carvas; R. Cirami; João Coelho; Maurizio Comari; Igor Coretti; Vincenzo De Caprio; Hans Dekker; Bernard Delabre; Paolo Di Marcantonio; Valentina D'Odorico; Michel Fleury; Ramon Güimil García; J. Linares; Ian Hughes; Olaf Iwert; Jorge Lima; Jean-Louis Lizon; Gaspare Lo Curto; Christophe Lovis; Antonio Manescau; Carlos Martins
ESPRESSO, the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations, will combine the efficiency of modern echelle spectrograph design with extreme radial-velocity precision. It will be installed on ESOs VLT in order to achieve a gain of two magnitudes with respect to its predecessor HARPS, and the instrumental radialvelocity precision will be improved to reach cm/s level. Thanks to its characteristics and the ability of combining incoherently the light of 4 large telescopes, ESPRESSO will offer new possibilities in various fields of astronomy. The main scientific objectives will be the search and characterization of rocky exoplanets in the habitable zone of quiet, nearby G to M-dwarfs, and the analysis of the variability of fundamental physical constants. We will present the ambitious scientific objectives, the capabilities of ESPRESSO, and the technical solutions of this challenging project.
Solid State Sensor Arrays and CCD Cameras | 1996
Fabio Bortoletto; Carlotta Bonoli; Maurizio D'Alessandro; D. Fantinel; Giancarlo Farisato; G. Bonanno; P. Bruno; Rosario Cosentino; G. Bregoli; Maurizio Comari
In the last years, the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) detectors have had a great development: 2048 X 2048 pixel formats are routinely produced by silicon foundries with good electro- optical characteristics. Scientific CCDs now, not only offer the ability to be read from more than one output, but they can also be buttable to form mosaics in order to cover a larger field of view, requirement posed by the current telescope technology. The Italian National Telescope GALILEO (TNG) will support a large set of visual and near IR detectors dedicated to scientific measurements at the focal plane. Also tracking systems and Shack-Hartmann wavefront analyzers will be based on CCD technology. Due to the number of camera systems to be routinely operated, the possibility to have uniformed interaction and configuration of systems is emerged as an important requirement for this crucial part of the telescope. In this paper the detector and instrument plan foreseen for the TNG telescope will be presented on the first part, while on the second we will present the CCD controller, now at the end of development. Here presented is a modular system based on digital signal processors and transputer modules. It is interfaced to host computers (PCs, workstations or VME crates) via optical fibers and a specially developed VME-VSB interface board.
Proceedings of SPIE | 2010
P. Di Marcantonio; Igor Coretti; R. Cirami; Maurizio Comari; P. Santin; M. Pucillo
During the last years the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in collaboration with other European astronomical institutes, has started several feasibility studies for the E-ELT (European-Extremely Large Telescope) instrumentation and post-focal adaptive optics. The goal is to create a flexible suite of instruments to deal with the wide variety of scientific questions astronomers would like to see solved in the coming decades. In this framework INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Trieste (INAF-AOTs) is currently responsible of carrying out the analysis and the preliminary study of the architecture of the electronics and control software of three instruments: CODEX (control software and electronics) and OPTIMOS-EVE/OPTIMOS-DIORAMAS (control software). To cope with the increased complexity and new requirements for stability, precision, real-time latency and communications among sub-systems imposed by these instruments, new solutions have been investigated by our group. In this paper we present the proposed software and electronics architecture based on a distributed common framework centered on the Component/Container model that uses OPC Unified Architecture as a standard layer to communicate with COTS components of three different vendors. We describe three working prototypes that have been set-up in our laboratory and discuss their performances, integration complexity and ease of deployment.
Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation | 2000
Roberto Pallavicini; Luca Pasquini; Bernard Delabre; Norbert Hubin; Paolo Conconi; Luciano Mantegazza; Ruben Mazzoleni; Emilio Molinari; Filippo Maria Zerbi; Paolo Molaro; P. Bonifacio; P. Santin; P. Dimarcantonio; Mariagrazia Franchini; G. Bonanno; P. Bruno; Rosario Cosentino; Salvatore Scuderi; Santo Catalano; Marcello Rodono; Pasquale Caldara; F. Damiani; Maurizio Comari; S. Monai; F. Passaretta
We present a preliminary design study for an adaptive optics visual echelle spectrograph and imager/coronograph for use as parallel instrument of the Nasmyth Adaptive Optics System (NAOS) on unit UT3 of the VLT. The spectrograph is intended for intermediate resolution spectroscopy of faint sources. It could be used for observations of late-type dwarfs in distant Galactic clusters and in galaxies of the local group as well as for spectroscopy of extra galactic objects like quasars and Lyman break galaxies down to a limiting magnitude of V equals 22.5. The implementation of an imaging gand coronograph mode increases the versatility of the instrument and its scientific objectives. The instrument takes advantage of Adaptive Optics at visible wavelengths both for imaging and spectroscopy. With NAOS at the VLT, the light concentration in these bands will be above approximately 60 percent of the flux in a 0.3 arcsec aperture for typical Paranal conditions. Simulations show that a gain of more than one magnitude with respect to compatible non-adaptive optical spectrography will be possible for sky- and/or detector limited observations. In addition, the smaller diffraction limit in the optical than in the IR will allow a significant gain in imaging and coronography as well. Finally, the instrument will allow gathering unprecedented experience on the performances of AO at visible wavelengths, which will be fundamental for further development of AO systems, in particular for very large telescopes.
Proceedings of SPIE | 2004
R. Cirami; Maurizio Comari; Claudio Corte; Damjan Golob; Paolo Di Marcantonio; Mark Plesko; M. Pucillo; P. Santin; Matej Sekoranja; Claudio Vuerli
Large experimental facilities, like telescopes and focal plane instrumentation in the astronomical domain, are becoming more and more complex and expensive, as well as control systems for managing such instruments. The general trend, as can be learned by realizations carried out in the most recent years, clearly drives to most cost-effective solutions: widespread, stable standards in the software field, COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) components and industry standards in the hardware field. Therefore a new generation of control system products needs to be developed, in order to help the scientific community to minimize the cost and efforts required for maintenance and control of their facilities. In the spirit of the aforementioned requirements and to provide a low-cost software and hardware environment we present a working prototype of a control system, based on RTAI Linux and on ACS (Advanced Control System) framework ported to an embedded platform. The hardware has been chosen among COTS components: a PC/104+ platform equipped with a PMAC2A motion controller card and a commercial StrongARM single board controller. In this way we achieved a very powerful, inexpensive and robust real-time control system which can be used as a general purpose building block in the design of new instruments and could also be proposed as a standard in the field.
Proceedings of SPIE | 2008
P. Di Marcantonio; P. Santin; Igor Coretti; R. Cirami; Maurizio Comari
The Astrophysical Technology Group of the INAF-AOT, as part of a consortium led by ESO, has carried out a feasibility study for the Control Software and Electronics of a new generation optical spectrograph, named ESPRESSO. ESPRESSO has been conceived as a high-efficient, high-resolution, fiber-fed spectrograph of high mechanical and thermal stability to be located at the Coude Combined Laboratory of the VLT. These features together with its ability to gather light from 4-UT simultaneously made ESPRESSO a very challenging instrument. This paper presents an overview of the control software and electronics concept design focusing on the more critical and innovative aspects of the spectrograph.
Archive | 2002
Roberto Pallavicini; Filippo Maria Zerbi; Jean-Luc Beuzit; G. Bonanno; Piercarlo Bonifacio; Maurizio Comari; Paolo Conconi; Bernard Delabre; Mariagrazia Franchini; Paolo Di Marcantonio; Anne-Marie Lagrange; Ruben Mazzoleni; Paolo Molaro; Luca Pasquini; P. Santin
We present the scientific case for an Adaptive Optics Visual Echelle Spectrograph and Imager Coronograph (AVES-IMCO) that we propose as a visitor instrument for the secondary port of N AOS at the VLT. We show that such an instrument would be ideal for intermediate resolution (R=16,000) spectroscopy of faint sky-limited objects down to a magnitude of V=24.0 and will complement very effectively the near-IR imaging capabilities of CONICA. We present examples of science programmes that could be carried out with such an instrument and which cannot be addressed with existing VLT instruments. We also report on the result of a two-year design study of the instrument, with specific reference to its use as parallel instrument of NAOS.
Proceedings of SPIE | 2012
Denis Mégevand; Filippo Maria Zerbi; Alexandre Cabral; Paolo Di Marcantonio; Manuel Amate; F. Pepe; S. Cristiani; R. Rebolo; N. C. Santos; Hans Dekker; Manuel Abreu; Michael Affolter; Gerardo Avila; Veronica Baldini; Paul Bristow; Christopher Broeg; Pedro Carvas; R. Cirami; João Coelho; Maurizio Comari; Paolo Conconi; Igor Coretti; G. Cupani; Valentina D'Odorico; Vincenzo De Caprio; Bernard Delabre; P. Figueira; Michel Fleury; Ana Fragoso; Ludovic Genolet
Archive | 2003
R. Cirami; Maurizio Comari; Claudio Corte; P. Di Marcantonio; M. Pucillo; P. Santin; Claudio Vuerli
Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation | 2003
Roberto Pallavicini; Bernard Delabre; Luca Pasquini; Filippo Maria Zerbi; G. Bonanno; Maurizio Comari; Paolo Conconi; Ruben Mazzoleni; P. Santin; F. Damiani; Paolo Di Marcantonio; Mariagrazia Franchini; Paolo Spanò; P. Bonifacio; Santo Catalano; Paolo Molaro; S. Randich; Marcello Rodono