Collaborative Research: Exploring Gas throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and Magellanic System of Galaxies with the WHAM-South Telescope

这项奋进的合作者将使用一个名为WHAM的望远镜来完成一个长期项目，以绘制银河系和附近被称为麦哲伦云的“卫星”星系中的温暖气体。该望远镜的设计相当不寻常，专门为此目的而建造。WHAM主要由NSF资助建造并维护和运营了20年。WHAM已经导致博士后学位和活跃的职业生涯在科学为大量的年轻研究人员。在亚利桑那州的基特峰天文台工作了十年后，这架望远镜现在位于智利。它是远程操作的（通过互联网），可以在不同原子和离子（带电原子）产生的光中绘制银河系。 由于这种温暖的气体是星系的重要组成部分，天文学家可以更好地了解星系是如何变化的，并可以测试它是如何形成和如何演变的理论。研究生和本科生将继续参与数据收集和分析，作为运营团队的一部分。这是威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校和博尔德空间科学研究所的一个合作项目，旨在继续为威斯康星州H-Alpha Mapper（WHAM）提供运营支持，这是一个远程控制的设施，致力于探测和研究银河系盘和晕中微弱的光学发射线。 WHAM设施包括一个15厘米孔径的双标准具法布里-珀罗光谱仪和一个60厘米孔径的恒铁仪，这两个仪器共同提供一个1度的天空视野，并在200公里/秒的光谱窗口内产生12公里/秒的分辨率光谱。 CCD相机作为多通道探测器，记录光谱作为法布里-珀罗“环图像”，而无需扫描。WHAM于1997年1月开始在基特峰运行，从那里它测量了整个北方天空的H-α发射（WHAM巡天，或WHAM-SS）。还获得了其他诊断发射线上不同区域的补充观测。WHAM随后进行了翻新，并转移到智利的Cerro Tololo，于2009年3月实现了第一次南光。此后，WHAM-SS已经完成，其他线路（[SII]和[NII]）的观测已经开始。有了这个奖项，团队将完成[SII]和[NII]的测绘，并将WHAM（H-alpha）调查扩展到更广泛的速度。总体目标是完成现有的调查，并支持当前的学生通过现有项目的完成。组合数据集将用于探测扩散电离气体（DIG）和暖电离介质（WIM）的成分、温度、加热和电离。该小组将调查这些成分与活跃星星形成区域之间的关系。WHAM设施也可用于研究地球的大气层、彗星、黄道尘和月球钠。

The collaborators on this endeavor will use a telescope called WHAM to complete a long-term project to map the warm gas in the Milky Way Galaxy and nearby "satellite" galaxies known as the Magellanic Clouds. The telescope is a rather unusual design and was built specifically for this purpose. WHAM was constructed and has been maintained and operated for 20 years primarily with NSF funding. WHAM has led to Postdoctoral degrees and active careers in science for a large number of young researchers. After a decade at the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona the telescope is now located in Chile. It is operated remotely (over the internet) and can map the Milky Way in the light produced by different atoms and ions (charged atoms). Since this warm gas is an important component of the galaxy, astronomers can better understand how the galaxy is changing and can test theories of how it was formed and how it is evolving. Graduate and undergraduate students will continue to be involved in data collection and analysis as part of the operations team.This is a collaborative project from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Space Science Institute in Boulder that seeks to continue operations support for the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM), a remotely controlled facility that is dedicated to the detection and study of faint optical emission lines in the disk and halo of the Milky Way.  The WHAM facility consists of a 15 cm aperture dual-etalon Fabry-Pérot spectrometer coupled to a 60 cm aperture siderostat, which together provide a one-degree field-of-view on the sky and produce a 12 km/s resolution spectrum across a 200 km/s spectral window.  A CCD camera serves as a multichannel detector, recording the spectrum as a Fabry-Pérot "ring image" without scanning. WHAM began operations on Kitt Peak in January 1997 from where it surveyed H-alpha emission throughout the entire northern sky (the WHAM-Sky Survey, or WHAM-SS). Complementary observations of various regions in other diagnostic emission lines were also obtained. WHAM has subsequently been refurbished and moved to Cerro Tololo, Chile, achieving first southern light in March 2009. The WHAM-SS has since been completed, and observations in other lines ([SII] and [NII]) have begun. With this award the team will complete mapping in [SII] and [NII], and extend the WHAM (H-alpha) survey to broader velocities. The overarching goal is to complete existing surveys and support current students through to the completion of existing projects. The combined datasets will be used to probe the composition, temperature, heating, and ionization of the Diffuse Ionized Gas (DIG) and Warm Ionized Medium (WIM). The team will investigate the relationship between these components and regions of active star formation. The WHAM facility can also be used to study the earth's atmosphere, comets, zodiacal dust, and lunar sodium.