The UMD-NOAO Collaboration
The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) and the Department of
Astronomy of the University of Maryland College Park (UMD) have
reached an agreement under which UMD receives approximately 20% of the
scientific nights on the Kitt Peak 4 meter telescope from NOAO, and in return UMD provides personnel support for software development that is carried
out at NOAO. The nights that UMD receives on the Kitt Peak 4 meter
telescope are exchangeable on a 1-to-1 ratio for nights on the WIYN
3.5m telescope, or on a 5-to-1 ratio on the Kitt Peak 2.1m
telescope. As described in detail under available instruments, a wide
range of instruments for optical and near-infrared imaging and
spectroscopy is available.
The UMD software contribution currently focuses on assisting in the
development of reduction pipelines for both MOSAIC and NEWFIRM, and on
development of the NOAO data archive. Presently, Tracy Huard, Rob Swaters, and Brian Thomas are working on
these projects. From January to July 2004, Ed Shaya
also contributed to this effort. Sylvain Veilleux is the coordinator
of the UMD side of the UMD-NOAO collaboration.
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The spiral galaxy NGC 6946 imaged with the Kitt Peak 2.1 m telescope
through BVR (blue, green, and red) filters in 0.8" seeing. At a
distance of 5.9 Mpc, this corresponds to a physical
resolution of 23 pc. Many blue star forming regions and pink regions
of ionized gas can be seen along the prominent spiral arms, which are
threaded throughout by dark regions of obscuring dust. Intermediate
age stars (yellow-green) are distributed between as well as in the
arms, and the galaxy becomes redder towards the center where older
stars are concentrated. (By Stacy McGaugh and Rachel Kuzio de Naray.)
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News and Events
| NEWFIRM First Light | Feb 5, 2007 |
Images of BNKL region in the Orion Nebula taken on February 5, 2007
during the first-light run of NEWFIRM, the NOAO Extremely Wide-Field
Infrared Imager. NEWFIRM has a field of view roughly one half a
degree by one half of a degree, and a pixel size of approximately 0.44
arcsec. The top two images were in the H2 2.12 micron
narrow-band filter. The left picture shows the full field of view, the
right image image is a blow-up of the left image, showing the fine
details. The bottom two panels, showing the same field and blow-up,
are false-color images, constructed from the [Fe II] 1.64 micron
(red), the H2 2.12 micron (green), and Bracket-gamma 2.16
micron (blue) observations. During commissioning, one lower-grade
engineering array was used, resulting in higher noise in the lower
right section of the full image. It will be replaced with a
science-grade array in time for the next run in April/May. The
narrow-band filters were provided by UMD as part of the Maryland-NOAO
Collaboration. Data were obtained by John Bally (U. Colorado) and
Josh Walawender (U. of Hawaii). Images by Frank Valdes (NOAO). Click
on any of the images above to see the full resolution versions (about
3MB for the full field). |
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| Kitt Peak Summer School 2005 | June 20-23, 2005 |
Like last year, the astronomy department organized a summer school
with the aim to give graduate students an opportunity to write and
review observing proposals, and then to carry out these proposals at
the telscopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory to which UMD has
access. From June 20 to 23, used optical and near-infrared imaging
instruments on the 60 inch and the 2.1 meter telescopes, and the
optical spectrograph at the Coude feed, in the same building as the
2.1 meter telescope. One of the summer school students, Randall Perrine, created a
photo diary |
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| Kitt Peak Summer School 2004 | July 8-12, 2004 |
 In the summer of 2004, the astronomy department organized a summer
school to give the graduate students experience in writing observing
proposals, reviewing them, and carrying out the proposed observations
on some of the instruments and telescopes at National Observatories at
Kitt Peak. From July 8 to 12, the students observed with the
spectrograph at the Coude Feed, the near-infrared SQIID camera at the
2.1m, and the CCD imager at the 60 inch. Elizabeth Warner, one of
the participants, wrote a
summary of her experiences and created a picture gallery. |
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