» Project 1640
Project 1640
The combination of an advanced adaptive optics system (PALM-3000 or P3K) on the 5-meter diameter telescope at Palomar Observatory, an advanced coronagraph and hyperspectral imager called Project 1640 developed at the American Museum of Natural History, and a wavefront sensor calibration unit provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory offers a broad range of research opportunities. Project 1640 is specifically designed to image planets orbiting nearby stars and to acquire low-resolution spectra of them simultaneously. It is currently the most advanced and highest contrast imaging system in the world and was successfully installed at the Palomar 200-inch telescope July 2008.
More information:
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In the dome right before installation at the Palomar 200-inch telescope.
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A nice night for first light! The view from the observatory on the fist use of the Project 1640 instrument.
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The adaptive optics system with Rick Burruss examining the light path.
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The Project 1640 instrument (blue box, front and center) installed on the adaptive optics system in the lab at AMNH.
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First light images of the star Vega. These images consist of 40,000 tiny spectra of each part of the image.
