Rosalia Langarica

HH 262: The Red Lobe of the L1551 IRS 5 Outflow

HH 262 is a group of emitting knots located approximately 35 to the northeast of the L1551 IRS 5 source. We present a detailed study of the kinematic properties of HH 262, based on proper-motion measurements and on high-resolution imaging Fabry-Perot observations in the [S II] 6717 A line. From these observations, we conclude that it indeed appears to be the case that HH 262 is associated with the red lobe of the L1551 IRS 5 outflow.

UNAM scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer (PUMA) for the study of interstellar medium

The system called PUMA is an instrument consisting of a focal reducer coupled to a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer (SFPI), which is being developed for the Observatorio Astronomicao Nacional at San Pedro Martir, B.C. It will be installed at the 2.0 m Ritchey-Chretien telescope with a focal ratio of F/7.9. It has interference filters, a calibration system, and field diaphragms. The SFPI can be moved out of the optical path in order to acquire direct images. The images produced by this instrument will be focused on an optoelectronic detector, a CCD, or a Mepsicron, depending on the spectral range used.

OSIRIS tunable imager and spectrograph for the GTC: from design to commissioning

OSIRIS (Optical System for Imaging and low Resolution Integrated Spectroscopy) was the optical Day One instrument for the 10.4m Spanish telescope GTC. It is installed at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos (La Palma, Spain). This instrument has been operational since March-2009 and covers from 360 to 1000 nm. OSIRIS observing modes include direct imaging with tunable and conventional filters, long slit and low resolution spectroscopy. OSIRIS wide field of view and high efficiency provide a powerful tool for the scientific exploitation of GTC. OSIRIS was developed by a Consortium formed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and the Instituto de Astronomía de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IA-UNAM). The latter was in charge of the optical design, the manufacture of the camera and collaboration in the assembly, integration and verification process. The IAC was responsible for the remaining design of the instrument and it was the project leader. The present paper considers the development of the instrument from its design to its present situation in which is in used by the scientific community.

Optical design of COATLI: an all-sky robotic optical imager with 0.3 arcsec image quality

COATLI is a new instrument and telescope that will provide 0.3 arcsec FWHM images from 550 to 920 nm over a large fraction of the sky. It consists of a robotic 50-cm telescope with a diffraction-limited imager. The imager has a steering mirror for fast guiding, a blue channel using a EMCCD from 400 to 550 nm to measure image motion, a red channel using a standard CCD from 550 to 920 nm, and an active optics system based on a deformable mirror to compensate static aberrations in the red channel. Since the telescope is small, fast guiding will provide diffraction-limited image quality in the red channel over a large fraction of the sky, even in relatively poor seeing. COATLI will be installed at the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional in Baja California, Mexico, in September 2016 and will operate initially with a simple interim imager. The definitive COATLI instrument will be installed in 2017. In this paper, we present some of the details of the optical design of the instrument.

PUMILA: A Near-infrared Spectrograph for the Kinematic Study of the Interstellar Medium.

We are developing an instrument to study the morphology and kinematics of the molecular gas and its interrelationship with the ionized gas in star forming regions, planetary nebulae and supernova remnants in our Galaxy and other galaxies, as well as the kinematics of the IR emitting gas in starburst and interacting galaxies. This instrument consists of a water-free fused silica scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer optimized in the spectral range from 1.5 to 2.4 micrometers with high spectral resolution. It will be installed in the collimated beam of a nearly 2:1 focal reducer, designed for the Cassegrain focus of the 2.1 m telescope of the San Pedro Martir National Astronomical Observatory. Mexico, in its f/7.5 configuration, yielding a field of view of 11.6 arc-min. It will provide direct images as well as interferograms to be focused on a 1024 X 1024 HAWAII array, covering a spectral range from 0.9 to 2.5 micrometers .

PUMA: the first results of a nebular spectrograph for the study of the kinematics of interstellar medium

The kinematics of the interstellar medium may be studied by means of a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer (SFPI). This allows the coverage of a wider field of view with higher spatial and spectral resolution than when a high-dispersion classical spectrograph is used. The system called PUMA consists of a focal reducer and a SFPI installed in the 2.1 m telescope of the San Pedro Martir National Astronomical Observatory (SPM), Mexico, in its f/7.5 configuration. It covers a field of view of 10 arcmin providing direct images as well as interferograms which are focused on a 1024 X 1024 Tektronix CCD, covering a wide spectral range. It is considered the integration of other optical elements for further developments. The optomechanical system and the developed software allow exact, remote positioning of all movable parts and control the FPI scanning and data acquisition. The parallelism of the interferometer plates is automatically achieved by a custom method. The PUMA provides spectral resolutions of 0.414 Angstrom and a free spectral range of 19.8 Angstrom. Results of high quality that compete with those obtained by similar systems in bigger telescopes, are presented.

Structural design techniques applied in astronomical instruments

We present in this article some of the techniques applied at the Instituto de Astronomía of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IA-UNAM) to the mechanical structural design for astronomical instruments. With this purpose we use two recent projects developed by the Instrumentation Department. The goal of this work is to give guidelines about support structures design for achieving a faster and accurate astronomical instruments design. The main guidelines that lead all the design stages for instrument subsystems are the high-level requirements and the overall specifications. From these, each subsystem needs to get its own requirements, specifications, modes of operation, relative position, tip/tilt angles, and general tolerances. Normally these values are stated in the error budget of the instrument. Nevertheless, the error budget is dynamic, it is changing constantly. Depending on the manufacturing accuracy achieved, the error budget is again distributed. That is why having guidelines for structural design helps to know some of the limits of tolerances in manufacture and assembly. The error budget becomes then a quantified way for the interaction between groups; it is the key for teamwork.

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.

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.

TEQUILA: NIR camera/spectrograph based on a Rockwell 1024x1024 HgCdTe FPA

We describe the configuration and operation modes of the IR camera/spectrograph: TEQUILA based on a 1024 X 1024 HgCdTe FPA. The optical system will allow three possible modes of operation: direct imaging, low and medium resolution spectroscopy and polarimetry. The basic system is being designed to consist of the following: 1) A LN2 dewar that allocates the FPA together with the preamplifiers and a 24 filter position cylinder. 2) Control and readout electronics based on DSP modules linked to a workstation through fiber optics. 3) An opto-mechanical assembly cooled to -30 degrees that provides an efficient operation of the instrument in its various modes. 4) A control module for the moving parts of the instrument. The opto-mechanical assembly will have the necessary provision to install a scanning Fabry-Perot interferometer and an adaptive optics correction system. The final image acquisition and control of the whole instrument is carried out in a workstation to provide the observer with a friendly environment. The system will operate at the 2.1 m telescope at the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional in San Pedro Martir, B.C. (Mexico), and is intended to be a first-light instrument for the new 7.8m Mexican IR-Optical Telescope.