Dr. Margaret Moerchen Profile

Dr. Margaret Moerchen

Postdoctoral Fellow at European Southern Observatory

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Publications (5)

Proceedings Article | 27 September 2012 Paper

VISIR upgrade overview and status

Florian Kerber, Hans Ulrich Käufl, Pedro Baksai, Danuta Dobrzycka, Gert Finger, Derek Ives, Gerd Jakob, Eric Lagadec, Lars Lundin, Dimitri Mawet, Leander Mehrgan, Margaret Moerchen, Yazan Momany, Vincent Moreau, Eric Pantin, Miguel Riquelme, Ralf Siebenmorgen, Armin Silber, Alain Smette, Julian Taylor, Mario van den Ancker, Lars Venema, Ueli Weilenmann, Irina Yegorova

Proceedings Volume 8446, 84460E (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.924979

KEYWORDS: Spectroscopy, Sensors, Imaging spectroscopy, Mid-IR, Calibration, Prisms, Coronagraphy, Observatories, Imaging systems, Stars

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Proceedings Article | 21 July 2010 Paper

Upgrade of VISIR the mid-infrared instrument at the VLT

F. Kerber, H. Kaeufl, M. van den Ancker, P. Baksai, D. Dubreuil, G. Durand, D. Dobrzycka, G. Finger, Ch. Hummel, D. Ives, G. Jakob, E. Lagadec, L. Lundin, G. Marconi, M. Moerchen, Y. Momany, D. Nuernberger, E. Pantin, M. Riquelme, R. Siebenmorgen, A. Smette, L. Venema, U. Weilenmann, I. Yegorova

Proceedings Volume 7735, 77357R (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.857368

KEYWORDS: Sensors, Mid-IR, Telescopes, Astronomy, Observatories, Spectrographs, Infrared radiation, Coronagraphy, Spectral resolution, Infrared telescopes

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The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is preparing to upgrade VISIR, the mid-IR imager and spectrograph at the VLT. The project team is comprised of ESO staff and members of the original consortium that built VISIR: CEA Saclay and ASTRON. The goal is to enhance the scientific performance of VISIR and to facilitate its use by the ESO community. In order to capture the needs of the user community, we collected input from the users by means of a webbased questionnaire. In line with the results of the internal study and the input from the user community, the upgrade plan calls for a combination measures: installation of improved hardware, optimization of instrument operations and software support. The limitations of the current detector (sensitivity, cosmetics, artifacts) have been known for some time and a new 1k x 1k Si:As Aquarius array (Raytheon) will be the cornerstone of the VISIR upgrade project. A modified spectroscopic mode will allow covering the N-band in a single observation. Several new scientific modes (e.g., polarimetry, coronagraphy) will be implemented on a best effort basis. In addition, the VISIR operational scheme will be enhanced to ensure that optimal use of the observing conditions will be made. Specifically, we plan to provide a means to monitor precipitable water vapour (PWV) and enable the user to specify it as a constraint set for service mode observations. In some regions of the mid-IR domain, the amount of PWV has a fundamental effect on the quality of a given night for mid-IR astronomy. The plan also calls for full support by ESO pipelines that will deliver science-ready data products. Hence the resulting files will provide physical units and error information and all instrumental signatures will have been removed. An upgraded VISIR will be a powerful instrument providing diffraction-limited performance at an 8-m telescope. Its improved performance and efficiency as well as new science capabilities will serve the needs of the ESO community but will also offer synergy with various other facilities such as ALMA, JWST, VLTI and SOFIA. A wealth of targets for detailed study will be available from survey work done by VISTA and WISE. Finally, the upgraded VISIR will also serve as a pathfinder for potential mid-IR instrumentation at the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in terms of technology as well as operations.

Proceedings Article | 25 July 2008 Paper

Day-one science with CanariCam, the Gran Telescopio Canarias multi-mode mid-infrared camera

Charles Telesco, Christopher Packham, Christ Ftaclas, James Hough, Margaret Moerchen, Kevin Hanna, Jeffrey Julian, Frank Varosi, Roger Julian, Greg Bennett, Charles Murphey, Francisco Reyes, Craig Warner

Proceedings Volume 7014, 70140R (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.787697

KEYWORDS: Mid-IR, Stars, Polarimetry, Coronagraphy, Imaging spectroscopy, Telescopes, Polarization, James Webb Space Telescope, Cameras, Silicates

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Proceedings Article | 9 July 2008 Paper

Laboratory performance characteristics of CanariCam, the GTC facility multi-mode mid-IR camera

Margaret Moerchen, Christopher Packham, Charles Telesco, Kevin Hanna, Jeffrey Julian, Frank Varosi, James Hough, Francisco Reyes, Christ Ftaclas, J. Bennett, Roger Julian, Charles Murphey, Craig Warner

Proceedings Volume 7014, 70142E (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.789040

KEYWORDS: Polarimetry, Sensors, Polarization, Image quality, Mid-IR, Telescopes, Image quality standards, Coronagraphy, Cameras, Imaging spectroscopy

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Proceedings Article | 3 March 2003 Paper

High-resolution mid-infrared spectroscopy with EXES and SOFIA

Matthew Richter, John Lacy, Qingfeng Zhu, Daniel Jaffe, Thomas Greathouse, Margaret Moerchen, Douglas Mar, Claudia Knez

Proceedings Volume 4857, (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.458628

KEYWORDS: Spectral resolution, Mid-IR, Telescopes, Spectrographs, Sensors, Cryogenics, Molecules, Space telescopes, Ozone, Helium

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