MRI Acquisition: A New Start for the TSU 2 m Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope

天文学家开始为望远镜配备控制系统和仪器，让望远镜可以在计算机的控制下无人值守，自动观测恒星和其他物体。计算机也收集数据，并将数据提供给分析观测的软件。几个这样的望远镜正在运行中；它们中的大多数通过不同的滤色器拍摄物体的照片，以比较不同颜色物体的相对光通量。这些测量可以用来估计某些物体的温度、化学组成，甚至速度。但要对这些重要的物理参数进行更精确的测量，需要将望远镜收集的光发送到一种名为光谱仪的仪器上，在那里它展开成一道彩虹，可以获得更复杂的测量结果。目前，很少有望远镜+光谱仪在自动模式下运行，但有很多充分的理由这样做，特别是为了监测由于恒星黑子、脉动或轨道同伴偶尔发生的日食而改变其发射光的物体。田纳西州立大学的弗朗西斯·费克尔博士在亚利桑那州南部的费尔伯恩天文台使用这样一台自动光谱望远镜。他正在对望远镜光学和照相机进行重大改进，这将提高灵敏度和吞吐量，并使天文学家能够研究更多、更暗的恒星和其他天体。他的工作得到了美国国家科学基金会天文科学部重大研究仪器项目的支持。

Astronomers are beginning to outfit telescopes with control systems and instruments that allow the telescopes to work unattended, automatically observing stars and other objects under the control of a computer that also gathers the data and feeds it to software that analyzes the observations. Several such telescopes are under operation; most of them take pictures of objects through different colored filters to compare the relative fluxes of the light of objects seen in different colors. These measurements can be used to estimate the temperatures, chemical make-ups, and even velocities of some objects. But making more precise measurements of these important physical parameters requires that the light the telescope gathers be sent to an instrument called a spectrograph where it is spread out into a rainbow of colors and more sophisticated measurements can be obtained. At present few telescopes+spectrographs are operated in automatic mode, but there are many good reasons to do so, especially to monitor objects that change the light they emit due to star spots, pulsation, or occasional eclipses by orbiting companions. Dr. Francis Fekel of Tennessee State University works with such an Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope at the Fairborn Observatory in southern Arizona. He is making significant improvements to the telescope optics and camera that will increase the sensitivity and throughput and allow astronomers to study more and fainter stars and other objects. His work is supported by NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program through the Division of Astronomical Sciences.