Graduate Student Participation and CCD Procurement for the Original PolyOculus Array

该项目继续开发一种新的望远镜配置，称为PolyOculus，它能够以低得多的成本实现大型望远镜阵列。这使得预算有限的小型大学和学院能够从事前沿研究。 该系统使用小型业余望远镜来创建机器人光收集器。这些装置指向同一个目标，光线被送入定制的光纤电缆。光子灯笼用于将来自平行光纤的光联合收割机组合。 光可以进一步与其他类似的单元组合，以制造更大的望远镜。PolyOculus系统将作为Vera Rubin天文台确定的目标研究的探路者，以研究暗能量的性质并寻找类地行星。 后续光谱学在科学上非常重要，可以通过对夜空的时间序列观测来确定新来源的基本性质（例如超新星，耀斑星，潮汐破坏事件或新的物体类别），以确定这些事件的关键物理特性（温度，成分，径向速度，流出量等）。并追踪这些性质随时间的演变。 传统的大型光谱设备建造起来很昂贵。该项目将开发一种生产大面积等效望远镜的方法，方法是利用光子技术将多个半自主、小型、廉价的商用现成望远镜连接起来。至关重要的是，这种可扩展的设计的建造成本大大低于同等的传统大面积望远镜。该项目的创新阵列方法代表了一种新的方法来获得光谱时域天文学的后续行动。两名研究生将参与拉古纳山天文台仪器的部署和调试。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

This project continues development of a new telescope configuration that is referred to as PolyOculus, which enables large telescope arrays at significantly lower cost. This allows smaller universities and colleges with limited budgets to engage in forefront research. The system uses small amateur telescopes to create robotic light collectors. These units are pointed at the same target and the light is fed into custom fiber optic cables. A photonic lantern is used to combine the light from the parallel fibers. Light can be further combined again with other similar units to make even bigger telescopes. The PolyOculus system would serve as a pathfinder for studies of targets identified by the Vera Rubin Observatory, to study the nature of Dark Energy and search for Earth-like planets. Follow-up spectroscopy is scientifically important for identifying the basic nature of new sources that are being discovered by time series observation of the night sky (e.g. supernovae, flare stars, tidal disruption events, or new classes of objects), for determining the key physical properties of these events(temperature, composition, radial velocity, outflows, etc.) and to follow the evolution of those properties with time. Traditional large spectroscopic facilities are expensive to construct. This project will develop a method for producing large-area-equivalent telescopes by using photonic technology to link multiple semi-autonomous, small, inexpensive, commercial-off-the-shelf telescopes. Crucially, this scalable design has construction costs which are substantially lower than equivalent traditional large-area telescopes. This project’s innovative array approach represents a new approach to obtaining spectroscopic follow-up for time-domain astronomy. Two graduate students will be engaged in the deployment and commissioning of the instrument at the Mount Laguna Observatory.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.