NSF/AFOSR Astronomy: The Lyot Project Survey for Exoplanets, Brown Dwarfs and Circumstellar Disks

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AST-0628877/Oppenheimer, American Museum of Natural HistoryThe award will cover continued and improved applications of the Lyot Project coronograph coupled with the advanced, deformable secondary-based adaptive optics capabilities of the U.S. Air Force's Advanced Electro-Optical System telescope in Maui, to attempt direct detection of exoplanets. The project builds upon past successes of the PI's instrument in the detection of a brown dwarf and several debris disks, taking advantage of an improved deformable secondary mirror to be installed at the telescope facility in 2006. The PI brings significant capabilities for broader impacts of this work by virtue of his association with the American Museum of Natural History in New York, one of the most-visited museums in the world.