Panoramic optical and near-infrared SETI instrument: optical and structural design concepts

Jérôme Maire; Shelley A. Wright; Maren Cosens; Franklin P. Antonio; Michael L. Aronson; Samuel A. Chaim-Weismann; Frank D. Drake; Paul Horowitz; Andrew W. Howard; Geoffrey W. Marcy; Rick Raffanti; Andrew P. V. Siemion; Remington P. S. Stone; Richard R. Treffers; Avinash Uttamchandani; Dan Werthimer

doi:10.1117/12.2314444

16 July 2018 Panoramic optical and near-infrared SETI instrument: optical and structural design concepts

Jérôme Maire, Shelley A. Wright, Maren Cosens, Franklin P. Antonio, Michael L. Aronson, Samuel A. Chaim-Weismann, Frank D. Drake, Paul Horowitz, Andrew W. Howard, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Rick Raffanti, Andrew P. V. Siemion, Remington P. S. Stone, Richard R. Treffers, Avinash Uttamchandani, Dan Werthimer

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII; 107025L (2018) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314444
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2018, Austin, Texas, United States

Abstract

We propose a novel instrument design to greatly expand the current optical and near-infrared SETI search pa- rameter space by monitoring the entire observable sky during all observable time. This instrument is aimed to search for technosignatures by means of detecting nano- to micro-second light pulses that could have been emitted, for instance, for the purpose of interstellar communications or energy transfer. We present an instru- ment conceptual design based upon an assembly of 198 refracting 0.5-m telescopes tessellating two geodesic domes. This design produces a regular layout of hexagonal collecting apertures that optimizes the instrument footprint, aperture diameter, instrument sensitivity and total field-of-view coverage. We also present the optical performance of some Fresnel lenses envisaged to develop a dedicated panoramic SETI (PANOSETI) observatory that will dramatically increase sky-area searched (pi steradians per dome), wavelength range covered, number of stellar systems observed, interstellar space examined and duration of time monitored with respect to previous optical and near-infrared technosignature finders.

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Jérôme Maire, Shelley A. Wright, Maren Cosens, Franklin P. Antonio, Michael L. Aronson, Samuel A. Chaim-Weismann, Frank D. Drake, Paul Horowitz, Andrew W. Howard, Geoffrey W. Marcy, Rick Raffanti, Andrew P. V. Siemion, Remington P. S. Stone, Richard R. Treffers, Avinash Uttamchandani, and Dan Werthimer "Panoramic optical and near-infrared SETI instrument: optical and structural design concepts", Proc. SPIE 10702, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 107025L (16 July 2018); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2314444

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