Collaborative Research: The Condor Southern Sky Survey (Plus Northern Extension)

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Very dim galaxies challenge our understanding of how galaxies formed. Yet it is hard to study such galaxies using normal telescopes. The problem is that normal telescopes use a “secondary” mirror to bounce light from a “primary” mirror onto an eyepiece or a camera. This secondary mirror blocks the primary mirror and distorts the image. Here the investigators will use a new type of telescope that is made by combining several “refracting” telescopes to form one larger telescope. A refracting telescope does not require a secondary mirror. So, images from a refracting telescope are clearer than images from a normal telescope. This new telescope is designed to study very dim galaxies. The telescope will be used to study the Milky Way and other galaxies. The telescope will also be used to search for Earth-like planets orbiting white-dwarf stars. The telescope will also be used for public outreach and by a broader community including faculty and students at historically black colleges and universitiesCondor is the name for a set of six off-the-shelf refracting telescopes with six off-the-shelf CMOS cameras that form an array telescope. The investigators plan to locate the telescope initially in New Mexico for a Condor Northern Survey, then relocate to the Rio Hurtado Valley in Chile in June 2022 and initiate the Condor Southern Sky Survey. Condor is equipped with broad- and narrow-band filters and can acquire data at a cadence of 1 min. The science includes studying the incidence of very-low-surface- brightness galaxies and galaxy features across a variety of galaxy environments, and discovering transiting Earth-like planets in the habitable zones of white dwarfs. The project includes allocating 20% of the available observing time to a broader community that includes 10% of the total to investigators at historically black colleges and universities.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.