Mapping diffuse gas with the prototype Dragonfly filter tilter array

蜻蜓项目包括一种新技术，可以对星系周围的气体进行成像。与银河系类似的星系将被观测到，以便更好地理解这种“环星系介质”。为了做到这一点，蜻蜓仪器将升级为新的用户界面和遥控器。这个用户界面和远程控制非常适合课堂教学和演示。蜻蜓项目将有10%的时间用于高中生提出的项目。蜻蜓的数据和图像将用于与莱特纳天文馆合作制作一个简短的节目，将公众与夜空联系起来，并强调保护黑暗天空的努力。在分布式口径望远镜的概念基础上，首席研究员开发了一种新技术，以前所未有的灵敏度对宇宙中电离气体的分布进行成像。他的团队在望远镜的入口瞳孔前使用了一个可倾斜的超窄干涉滤光片，创造了一个具有非常高灵敏度和不降低带通的可调谐滤光片。该项目的直接目标是通过校准、硬件改进和软件开发的程序来开发原型。更广泛地说，其目的是为未来使用升级阵列研究环星系介质奠定基础。该设施将能够直接揭示星系嵌入的电离气体分布，提供电离通量以及金属丰度、冲击和体速度等关键物理信息。该计划将为研究生提供端到端的培训和学习环境，他们将获得仪器设计，光学，探测器，计算机控制，数据分析，“大数据”方面的宝贵经验，以及科学培训。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Dragonfly project consists of a new technique to image gas surrounding galaxies. Galaxies similar to the Milky Way will be observed so as to better understand this "circumgalactic medium". To do this, the Dragonfly instrument will be upgraded with a new user interface and remote control. This user interface and remote control lend themselves very well to classroom teaching and demonstrations. Up to 10% of the time on Dragonfly will be devoted to projects proposed by high school students. Dragonfly data and imagery will be used to create a short program developed with the Leitner Planetarium, connecting the public to the night sky and emphasizing dark sky preservation efforts. The principal investigator has developed a new technique to image the distribution of ionized gas in the universe with unprecedented sensitivity, building on the concept of a distributed-aperture telescope. His team uses a tiltable ultra-narrow interference filter in front of the entrance pupil of a telescope, creating a tunable filter with very high sensitivity and no degradation of the bandpass. The immediate goal of the project is to develop the prototype, through a program of calibrations, hardware refinements, and software development. More broadly, the aim is to lay the groundwork for future studies of the circumgalactic medium with upgraded arrays. This facility will be able to directly reveal the ionized gas distributions in which galaxies are embedded, providing the ionizing flux as well as key physical information on metallicities, shocks, and bulk velocities. This program will provide end-to-end training and learning environment for graduate students, who will gain invaluable experience in instrument design, optics, detectors, computer control, data analysis, “big data” aspects, as well as training in the science.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.