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Science case for the LAMA telescope.

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Aspects of the science case for the Large-Aperture Mirror Array or LAMA telescope are presented. The LAMA telescope will be a large-aperture array of 66 6.15-m diameter primary mirrors operating together to give a light-collecting ability and angular resolution comparable to those of a conventional 50-m diameter telescope. The first-generation instruments of the LAMA telescope will include a multi-band optical- and infrared-wavelength camera and a high-dispersion echelle spectrograph. The most important difference between the LAMA telescope and conventional telescopes is that the LAMA telescope will be constrained to point and track within 4 deg of the zenith, which corresponds to a maximum tracking time per night of ˜ 30 min. This implies that deep observations obtained by the LAMA telescope will be obtained gradually -- over periods spanning weeks, months, or years -- and so will contain a temporal dimension as a natural consequence of the design and mode of operation of the telescope. This temporal dimension makes possible some of the most interesting science to be performed with the LAMA telescope, ranging from the identification of very high redshift supernovae through observation of the acceleration of the Lya-forest absorption systems as a direct probe of the expansion history of the universe. The LAMA telescope will be used to carry out an extremely deep, narrow-field imaging survey at optical and infrared wavelengths and a high spectral resolution spectroscopic survey of bright, high-redshift QSOs. Copyright 2004 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited.

Text

2011-09-20

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/37488

Lanzetta, Kenneth M.; Hickson, Paul. Science case for the LAMA telescope. Second Backaskog Workshop on Extremely Large Telescopes, edited by Arne L. Ardeberg, Torben Andersen Proceedings of SPIE Volume 5382, 27, 2004.

Reviewed

Hickson, Paul

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