DCT Status, 29 Feb 2012
Construction complete
On January 20, 2012, the DCT's secondary mirror was successfully mounted in its support cell at the top of the telescope truss and on February 7, our engineers installed the instrument cube on the back of the primary mirror cell. These were the final major components of the telescope to be installed. This essentially marked the completion of construction.
We are therefore now fully into the commissioning phase of the DCT project. On February 24, we began observations using one of the guider probe cameras, formerly used at the DCT's prime focus in a test camera to examine the performance of the primary mirror and active optics but now mounted in their proper home in the instrument cube. Early results suggest the full Ritchey-Chretien system is working extremely well. The team is satisfied with the alignment of the telescope and has reached image quality of 1 arc second. We soon will be employing the active optics system to fine-tune the image quality.
Large Monolithic Imager
With the instrument cube (which includes the guider and wavefront sensor) now complete, our shop has turned its full attention to completing the Large Monolithic Imager (LMI). The LMI, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, will be the DCT's workhorse instrument, featuring a 36 megapixel CCD with a field of view of nearly 13 arc minutes. When complete, the LMI will be mounted on the back of the instrument cube, at the straight-through position, with other instruments eventually arrayed around the side ports.
First Light
At this time, we remain on schedule for first light in May 2012. The Discovery Channel plans to air its first major feature on the DCT in June 2012.
Dwarf galaxy N2366
The DCT will answer some key questions about dwarf galaxies.
Little galaxies pose big questions. Lowell astronomer Deidre Hunter and her colleagues have made observations that conflict with prevailing theories. These theories suggest that no stars should form when the gas from the parent galaxy — the gas that provides the building blocks for star formation — is too tenuous. Yet, Deidre has found evidence of star-forming regions in these small galaxies despite observations of insubstantial gas.
The DCT will address these questions. What’s wrong with the models? Is something helping to catalyze star formation on the outer edge of galaxies unexpectedly? Where do galaxies “end” and how do stars form at galactic edges? The DCT’s wide-field, ultra-deep imaging will allow us to closely inspect the distribution of stars and gas in the sparse regions of dwarf galaxies. Combined with spectroscopic observations to reveal the motions of the same stars and gas, we can better understand the structure and evolution of tiny galaxies. The implications of these observations go beyond just small galaxies; they also examine how more massive galaxies originated.
Acronym List
