ASP2011 Measurement Techniques Lectures 7-8 Dr. Duncan Galloway University of Melbourne

Cover of the UCSD phonebook, 1995 Caption reads: “Pictured on the cover is Dr. Richard Rothschild with one of the clusters of X-ray detector instruments designed, fabricated and tested at UCSD's Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences for NASA's X-ray Timing Explorer. The instrument, along with others developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, will provide important information on the nature of X- ray emitting objects, such as black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs. The products of stellar evolution, these extremeley dense objects exhibit enormous gravitational fields and are ultimately responsible for the generation of X-rays and gamma rays. Scheduled for launch in August 1995, the X-ray Timing Explorer will exploit the temporal variability of these stars on time scales from millionths of a second to months to explain how matter is transferred from one star to its binary companion, how this matter interacts with the intense magnetic fields present, and how X-ray beams are formed. The mission will also provide scientists with new understanding of the dynamics and life history of X-ray emitting objects.

LIGO Hanford, Washington LIGO Livingston, Louisiana

Standard telescope setup Modifications for adaptive optics