Astronomers are beginning to outfit telescopes with control systems and instruments that allow the telescopes to work unattended, automatically observing stars and other objects under the control of a computer that also gathers the data and feeds it to software that analyzes the observations. Several such telescopes are under operation; most of them take pictures of objects through different colored filters to compare the relative fluxes of the light of objects seen in different colors. These measurements can be used to estimate the temperatures, chemical make-ups, and even velocities of some objects. But making more precise measurements of these important physical parameters requires that the light the telescope gathers be sent to an instrument called a spectrograph where it is spread out into a rainbow of colors and more sophisticated measurements can be obtained. At present few telescopes+spectrographs are operated in automatic mode, but there are many good reasons to do so, especially to monitor objects that change the light they emit due to star spots, pulsation, or occasional eclipses by orbiting companions. Dr. Francis Fekel of Tennessee State University works with such an Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope at the Fairborn Observatory in southern Arizona. He is making significant improvements to the telescope optics and camera that will increase the sensitivity and throughput and allow astronomers to study more and fainter stars and other objects. His work is supported by NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program through the Division of Astronomical Sciences.
MRI NSF grant 1039522 entitled "MRI Acquisition: A New Start for the TSU 2m Automatic Spectroscopic Telescope," which was awarded to Tennessee State University (TSU), proposed making equipment changes that would improve the capabilities of the TSU 2 meter telescope and spectrograph system at Fairborn Observatory in southeast Arizona. This has been done by increasing the amount of starlight that reaches the detector, increasing the contrast between the starlight signal and the noise, and broadening the wavelength coverage of the spectra so that it now ranges from the near ultraviolet to the near infrared. Because of these upgrades, the telescope can observe fainter stars and obtain observations much more quickly. These improved capabilities were discussed and the availability of the telescope for the use of other research groups was announced at a meeting of the astronomical community. Since that recent announcement we have been contacted by astronomers from LSU, Michigan, and Georgia Tech, who are interested in using our refurbished 2 m telescope for various projects. In response to the request from LSU, we have initiated a pilot project on the telescope to identify from spectroscopy new stars in a peculiar class of objects that are carbon rich and hydrogen deficient. These stars are extremely rare in our galaxy. The candidate stars were culled from several infrared surveys. The stars may result from the merger of two white dwarfs. A white dwarf is the very hot core of a star like our Sun, when it is at the end of its life. The requests from Michigan and Georgia Tech astronomers involved observing binary stars that we see pass in front of each other. We are collecting preliminary observations to examine the feasibility of those projects.
