Silvio J. Tinoco

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.

DDOTI: the deca-degree optical transient imager

DDOTI will be a wide-field robotic imager consisting of six 28-cm telescopes with prime focus CCDs mounted on a common equatorial mount. Each telescope will have a field of view of 12 deg2, will have 2 arcsec pixels, and will reach a 10σ limiting magnitude in 60 seconds of r ≈ 18:7 in dark time and r ≈ 18:0 in bright time. The set of six will provide an instantaneous field of view of about 72 deg2. DDOTI uses commercial components almost entirely. The first DDOTI will be installed at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in Sierra San Pedro Martír, Baja California, México in early 2017. The main science goals of DDOTI are the localization of the optical transients associated with GRBs detected by the GBM instrument on the Fermi satellite and with gravitational-wave transients. DDOTI will also be used for studies of AGN and YSO variability and to determine the occurrence of hot Jupiters. The principal advantage of DDOTI compared to other similar projects is cost: a single DDOTI installation costs only about US

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

500,000. This makes it possible to contemplate a global network of DDOTI installations. Such geographic diversity would give earlier access and a higher localization rate. We are actively exploring this option.

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

COATLI will provide 0.3 arcsec FWHM images from 550 to 900 nm over a large fraction of the sky. It consists of a robotic 50-cm telescope with a diffraction-limited fast-guiding imager. Since the telescope is small, fast guiding will provide diffraction-limited image quality over a field of at least 1 arcmin and with coverage of a large fraction of the sky, even in relatively poor seeing. The COATLI telescope will be installed at the at the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional in Sierra San Pedro Mártir, México, during 2016 and the diffraction-limited imager will follow in 2017.

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

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.

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

Franco-Mexican Differential Speckle Interferometer

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

Differential speckle interferometry is based on the cross analysis of series of speckle patterns produced in different wavelengths. The study of the position differences between these speckles provides angular information on objects much smaller than the diffraction limit. In order to make the measurements of the photocenter displacement, we have built an instrument which behaves like a spectrograph in one direction and a speckle interferometer in the perpendicular direction. A mirror anamorphoser permits us to meet the different sampling requirements. The dispersed speckle pattern is recorded by a photon counting camera. The measurements of the photocenter displacements are very sensitive to differences of aberration between spectral channels and temporal variations of the detectors distorsion. Our instrument provides images with a quality equal to the diffraction limit plus residual aberrations of the order of one hundreth of the wavelength used. The distorsion of the optics is much smaller than the size of the temporal variations of the detectors distorsion. In order to correct this variable distorsion, spatial and spectral modulations are made in a fully automated instrument.