Astronomical Instrumentation

‘IMAKA

Lead: Jessica Lu

Ultra-wide field adaptive optics demonstrator that corrects image blurring from the Earth's atmosphere due to turbulence near the ground. 

Adaptive Optics

Adaptive optics (AO) corrects the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere for large ground-based telescopes. We are working on new approaches to both improve the quality of current AO systems and develop the next generation of AO systems.    

HYPERION

Lead: Aaron Parsons

The Hydrogen Probe of the Epoch of Reionization (HYPERION) is a specialized low-frequency interferometer to study the Epoch of Reionization through the spatial monopole of the 21cm brightness temperature of neutral hydrogen as a function of redshift (i.e. the ''global signal"). The goal of HYPERION is to detect the monopole reionization signal. A detection of this signal could give key insights into the physics and development of our early universe, including information on the formation of the first stars and galaxies.

Realfast: Fast Transient Surveys with the VLA

 realfast is a new instrument dedicated to millisecond transient surveys at the Very Large Array (VLA). A major motivation for this system is to search for Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), a mysterious, new class of fast radio transient. Each realfast FRB detection will be localized so precisely that we can identify their multiwavelength associations, such as a host galaxy. This was proven with the first realfast discovery, the first subarcsecond FRB localization and association with a host galaxy. More information available at http://realfast.io