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| Location(s) | Arizona |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 31°57′27″N111°36′04″W / 31.9575°N 111.601°W /31.9575; -111.601 |
| Diameter | 3,498.85 mm (11 ft 5.750 in) |
| Collecting area | 9.6 m2 (103 sq ft) |
| Focal length | 6.125 m (20 ft 1.1 in) |
| Website | www |
  Location of WIYN Observatory | |
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TheWIYN Observatory is owned and operated by theWIYN Consortium. Its 3.5-metertelescope is the second largest optical telescope atKitt Peak National Observatory inArizona. Most of the capital costs for theobservatory were provided by theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison,Indiana University, andYale University, while theNational Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) provides most of the operating services. The NOAO is an institution of theUnited States; it is the national optical observatory program and supports a collection of ground-based telescopes at Kitt Peak (where WIYN is located) as well as other locations.
WIYN is aRitchey–Chrétien telescope with analtitude-azimuth mount. The lightweight borosilicate primary mirror has a diameter of 3.49885 m (137.75") and was manufactured at theRichard F. Caris Mirror Lab.[1][2] Sixty-sixactive optics actuators support the primary mirror.
The telescope is located in a half-Rhombicuboctahedron dome.
Hydra is a multiobjectspectrograph usingfiber optics robotically positioned in thefocal plane to allow up to 100 separate objects to be observed at a time. The light is guided to aspectrograph room under the main telescope where aCCD camera records thespectrum of each object. Thefield of view is approximately 1 degree.[1]Archived 2019-08-25 at theWayback Machine Hydra has been operating since 1990.[3] It was originally located at theNicholas U. Mayall Telescope before being moved to WIYN in 1994.[4] In 2021, Hydra received a major upgrade to the "gripper" fiber positioning robot.
Funded by theNN-EXPLORE collaboration betweenNASA and theNational Science Foundation, the NEID spectrograph searches for extra-solar planets by looking for minute variations in the radial velocity of the host star caused by the orbiting planet(s).[5] The extremely precise radial velocities (50 cm/s) provided by NEID will provide masses and densities for exoplanets discovered by theTESS space telescope.[6] The name NEID comes from theTohono Oʼodham word for "to see."[7]
The spectrograph was designed and built atPennsylvania State University, with the construction beginning in 2016.[8] The Port Adapter portion of the instrument, which provides guiding, focus correction,fast tip-tilt correction, and atmospheric dispersion correction to the starlight before injecting it into the optical fiber feeding the spectrograph, was built by the University of Wisconsin in collaboration with NOAO.[9] On June 2, 2021, NEID completed commissioning.
The NEID is also assisted by TheTexas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) with super-computer time and expertise in the scientific search for new exoplanets.[10]
The One Degree Imager (ODI) is the flagship of WIYN's new instrument initiatives. ODI utilizes both WIYN's one degree field of view and excellent image quality. The original design for ODI was to cover the onesquare degree field using a total of 64 Orthogonal Transfer Arrays (OTAs) with a total of 1 GigaPixel and a pixelscale of 0.11 arcseconds per pixel. Orthogonal transfer arrays allow to actively improve image sharpness by correcting images for tip/tilt motion during the integration.[11] Corrections will be done over the entire field of view, making ODI a unique and competitive instrument in the era of wide-field surveys. ODI is funded by the WIYN partners and the National Science Foundation.
ODI was first commissioned in a partial or prototype configuration (pODI) using 13 OTAs in the summer of 2012, and was available for science observations since early 2013. pODI was decommissioned in late 2014 to undergo a significant upgrade. The upgraded ODI, now using 30 OTAs in a 5x6 layout was recommissioned in summer 2015 and has been available for science observations since October 2015.[12]
WHIRC is a nearinfrared high resolution imaging camera commissioned in 2008. WHIRC was a joint project between the WIYN partners andSTScI. It consists of a 2k × 2k detector providing an excellent pixel scale of 0.1"/pixel and a field of view of 200 × 200 arcsec. WHIRC can be used with the WIYN Tip/Tilt Module (WTTM) to provide exquisite high-resolution images. A large set of filters is available.
MiniMo is a CCD consisting of two 2048 × 4096 pixel chips, with afield of view of 9.6arcminutes. The two separate chips allow for faster readout of the image than would have been otherwise possible, as they can be read out simultaneously.[2]Archived 2019-08-25 at theWayback Machine
The WIYN Consortium is governed by a board of directors, which includes three members of each partner institution. The board meets twice a year. The Science Steering Committee provides scientific guidance to the board and the WIYN director.
From 2000 to 2008, the WIYN director was George Jacoby, followed by Pierre Martin (2008–2010). From 2010 to 2013, Pat Knezek served as interim director. Since 2013, Eric Hooper (UW-Madison) has served as interim director.
Yale University withdrew from the WIYN consortium on April 1, 2014 and was replaced by theUniversity of Missouri in the fall of that year. In 2015, a NASA-NSF partnership called NN-EXPLORE effectively took over NOAO's share, although NOAO still manages the operations.
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