The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer is a 10 x 1.4 meter aperture long baseline optical and near-infrared
interferometer being built at 3,200 meters altitude on Magdalena Ridge, west of Socorro, NM. The interferometer layout
is an equilateral "Y" configuration to complement our key science mission, which is centered on imaging faint and
complex astrophysical targets. This paper serves as an overview and update on the status of the observatory and our
progress towards first light and first fringes in 2012.
We report on the opto-mechanical design of the MROI fringe tracker. This instrument, currently under development in
collaboration with the University of Cambridge, will be a dedicated fringe tracking beam combiner and spectrographs. I
will utilize the "Y" geometry of the array to stabilize fringes on shorter "nearest neighbor" baselines, and thus allow for
increased integration times on the longer baselines and the buildup of signal to noise. The beam combiner has been
designed to accommodate light from a maximum of ten telescopes (three in each array arm, one at the "Y" vertex), but
can operate with fewer without having to change the overall layout. A single spectrograph will multiplex up to five
nearest neighbor combinations onto a single detector. Identical spectrographs are located at opposite sides of the
combiner outputs to simultaneously sample combination pairs that are Π radians out of phase with respect to one another.
The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer is a 10-element 1.4 meter aperture optical and near-infrared
interferometer being built at 3,200 meters altitude on Magdalena Ridge, west of Socorro, NM. The
interferometer layout is an equilateral "Y" configuration to complement our key science mission, which is
centered around imaging faint and complex astrophysical targets. This paper serves as an overview and
update on the status of the observatory and our progress towards first light and first fringes in the next few
years.
The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI) is a US federally funded project to construct the world's most ambitious optical/IR (0.6-2.4micron) imaging interferometer at a 10,500ft-altitude site in New Mexico. In its initial phase it will consist of 6 telescopes, each 1.4m in diameter, separated by distances ranging from 7.5m to 340m. A second phase will upgrade the interferometer to a 10-telescope configuration, allowing a "snapshot" imaging capability. The MROI will deliver images with sub-milliarcsecond angular resolutions while simultaneously providing images over 5-70 spectral sub-bands. A key feature is that the array will have sufficient sensitivity to image a wide range of targets, including extragalactic targets and, potentially, geosynchronous satellites. We report on the design and current status of the array.
Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MRO) Interferometer is a ten telescope optical
interferometer array being built on the Magdalena Mountains 20 miles west of Socorro,
New Mexico. The interferometer is being designed by collaboration between New
Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and the University of Cambridge. The
science mission and requirements have been finalized which has helped to begin
engineering design and development culminating in detailed conceptual designs. Some of
the proposed hardware and software implementations are currently being tested in the
lab. We present an engineering overview of the conceptual design and the proposed
hardware and software implementations.
We present an outline of the automated alignment system for the 350m baseline Magdalena Ridge Observatory
Interferometer (MROI) which will manage the simultaneous alignment of its six principal optical subsystems
(telescopes, beam relay trains, delay lines, beam reducing telescopes, switchyards, and beam combiners). Many of these
components will be held under vacuum, will be subject to varying thermal loads and will use different coatings
(optimized for either optical or near-IR wavelengths). We review the proposed architecture of our scheme and discuss
the procedures, tools, and optical analyses we have used to design it.
The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer (MROI) is a ten element optical and near-infrared imaging interferometer being built in the Magdalena mountains west of Socorro, NM at an altitude of 3230 m. The interferometer is being designed and built by a collaboration which includes the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (NMT) as the prime contractor and center for the technical team, and the University of Cambridge, Physics Department at the Cavendish Laboratory, which participates in the design and executes work packages under contract with NMT. This manuscript serves as a status update on MROI, and will present progress and milestones toward the observatory's first fringes in 2008.
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