Panoramic optical and near-infrared SETI instrument: optical and structural design concepts
- Creators
- Maire, Jérôme
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Wright, Shelley A.
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Cosens, Maren
- Antonio, Franklin P.
- Aronson, Michael L.
- Chaim-Weismann, Samuel A.
- Drake, Frank D.
- Horowitz, Paul
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Howard, Andrew W.
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Marcy, Geoffrey W.
- Raffanti, Rick
- Siemion, Andrew P. V.
- Stone, Remington P. S.
- Treffers, Richard R.
- Uttamchandani, Avinash
- Werthimer, Dan
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.
Additional Information
© 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). The PANOSETI research and instrumentation program is made possible by the enthusiastic support and interest by Franklin Antonio. We thank the Bloomfield Family Foundation for supporting SETI research at UC San Diego in the CASS Optical and Infrared Laboratory. Harvard SETI is supported by The Planetary Society. UC Berkeley's SETI efforts involved with PANOSETI are supported by NSF grant 1407804, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, and the Marilyn and Watson Alberts SETI Chair fund. Lastly, we would like to thank the staff at Mt. Laguna and Lick Observatories for their help with equipment testing.Attached Files
Published - 107025L.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 92058
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190103-153504515
- Bloomfield Family Foundation
- The Planetary Society (TPS)
- AST-1407804
- NSF
- Breakthrough Prize Foundation
- Marilyn and Watson Alberts SETI Chair
- Created
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2019-01-04Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Astronomy Department
- Series Name
- Proceedings of SPIE
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 10702