First light (at ING): 9 October, 2008.
Designed and built by: ExPo was developed at the Astronomical Institute of Utrecht University.
Description:
The Extreme Polarimeter (ExPo) aims to study circumstellar material at a contrast ratio with the central star of 10-9. Working at visible wavelengths, it will provide an
inner working angle down to 0.5 arcsec and a field of view of 20 arcsec diameter. ExPo employs a dual beam-exchange
technique based on polarimeter designs for solar studies. A partially transmitting coronagraph mask placed in the first
focus reduces the light of the star. The beam is modulated using three ferro-electric liquid crystals in a Pancharatnam
configuration, then split in a polarizing beamsplitter. Both beams are re-imaged onto the same Electron-Multiplying
CCD camera.
Logo:
Time allocations:
Nights scheduled since semester 2007B
Instrument information: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008SPIE.7014E.227R
More:
Rodenhuis, M.; Canovas, H.; Jeffers, S. V.; Keller, C. U., 2008, "The Extreme Polarimeter (ExPo): design of a sensitive imaging polarimeter", SPIE Proc., 7014, 70146T.
Research impact:
Scientific highlights (1)
Publications (13 from ING paper count)
Outreach:
Media releases (1)
Multimedia:
Photo archive (1)