ING Annual Report
1999
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Chapter 5
In-house Research
and Development Activities
Activities at the ING naturally
focus on the day-to-day operation of the telescopes. However, research
and development activities are becoming more prominent. This section summarises
these activities during 1999.
Research activities by ING astronomers covered a range of topics, many
of which are linked to the activities of the telescopes. Key research areas
of astronomy staff at ING included active galaxies, quasars, distant supernovae,
planetary nebulae, evolution of early-type stars, and oscillations of massive
stars. A compilation of the papers published in science journals during
the year can be found in Appendix F.
Professor Philip Dufton ended his one year sabbatical leave from
the Queen's University of Belfast in July. During his stay at the ING he
worked closely with Danny Lennon and Steve Smartt on problems related to
the chemical evolution of Local Group galaxies and massive star evolution.
Towards the end of this year, two new research fellows agreed to join the
ING; Dr. Johan Knapen from the University of Hertfordshire and Dr. Romano
Corradi from the IAC. Johan's current interests concern mainly the central
regions of galaxies, particularly bars and circumnuclear star formation
regions, while Romano's main lines of research are concerned with planetary
nebulae and symbiotic stars.
Two long-term placement students, Jay Abbott and Andrew Humphrey from the
University of Hertfordshire stayed at ING during the 1998/99 academic year.
Both were involved in operation of the telescopes, in particular of the
JKT, as well as in science projects such as polarimetry of active galaxies.
Andrew was supervised by Chris Packham, while Jay Abbott, who worked on
stellar oscillations, was supervised by John Telting.
During 1999 three students, Daniel Bramich, Edward Hawkins and Samantha
Rix, worked at ING during the summer months, being engaged in various projects
such as a study of the scientific productivity of the telescopes and quality
control of Wide Field Survey data.
Engineering activities focussed strongly on the completion of the infra-red
camera, INGRID, for which nearly all engineering work was carried out in-house
at ING on La Palma. Work on INGRID included the design and manufacture
of components, opto-mechanical assembly and alignment, cryogenics, motor
controls, detector testing and integration, and instrument control software
and data reduction tools.
Other key projects during this year were the development and first implementation
at ING of SDSU-2 controllers for optical CCDs; the initiation of the design
and construction of a thin fibre unit for the AUTOFIB robotic fibre positioner;
a vast rebuild of the computing infrastructure involving a full re-cabling
of the data network in all the buildings on site and the completion of
the computer-based documentation system for mechanical drawings. Infrastructure
improvements at ING's sea level facility, in particular the construction
of a small detector laboratory and a (fibre) optics laboratory have been
crucial in support of these development activities.
Previous:
Chapter 4 - Telescope Performance and Scientific
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| Next: Chapter 6 - Public Relations
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Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
