Publications 2007

• Coleman, M. G., De Jong, J. T. A., Martin, N. F., Rix, H-W., Sand,
  D. J., Bell, E. F., Pogge, R.  W., Thompson, D. J., Hippelein, H.,
  Giallongo, E., Ragazzoni, R., di Paola, A., Farinato, J., Smareglia,
  R., Testa, V., Bechtold, J., Hill, J. M., Garnavich, P. M. and Green,
  R. F.  2007,
  "The Elongated Structure of the Hercules Dwarf
  Spheroidal Galaxy from Deep Large Binocular Telescope Imaging",
  ApJL, 668, pp. L43-L46.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Garnavich, P., Fan, X., Jiang, L., Dai, X., Kuhn, O., Bouche, N.,
  Buschkamp, P., Smith, P., Milne, P., Bechtold, J., Stanek, K. Z.,
  Prieto, J., Wagner, R. M., Rhoads, J., Hill, J., Baruffolo, A.,
  Desantis, C., Diolaiti, E., di Paola, A., Farinato, J., Fontana, A.,
  Gallozzi, S., Gasparo, F., Giallongo, E., Grazian, A., Pasian, F.,
  Pedichini, F., Ragazzoni, R., Smareglia, R., Speziali, R., Testa,
  V. and Vernet, E. 2007,
  "GRB 070125, deep late-time optical observation",
  GRB Coordinates Network Circular Service, 6165.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Dai, X., Garnavich, P., Pogge, R., Hill, J., Fan, X., Prieto, J.,
  Stanek, K. Z., Wagner, R. M., Rhoads, J., Egami, E., Bechtold, J. and
  Herbert-Fort. S. 2007,
  "GRB 070311 deep optical photometry",
  GRB Coordinates Network Circular Service, 6219.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Garnavich, P., Dai, X., Pogge, R., Hill, J., Fan, X., Prieto, J.,
  Stanek, K. Z., Wagner, R. M., Rhoads, J., Egami, E., Bechtold, J. and
  Herbert-Fort. S. 2007,
  "GRB 070311 deep optical photometry",
  GRB Coordinates Network Circular Service, 6245.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Prieto, J., Garnavich, P., Hill, J., Fan, X., Harris, J., Dai, X.,
  Martini, P., Stanek, K. Z., Wagner, R. M., Rhoads, J. and
  Herbert-Fort, S. 2007,
  "GRB 070411 deep LBT photometry",
  GRB Coordinates Network Circular Service, 6346.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Garnavich, P., Prieto, J., Hill, J., Fan, X., Dai, X., Stanek, K. Z.,
  Wagner, R. M., Rhoads, J., Bechtold, J., Gredel, R. and Grazian,
  A. 2007,
  "GRB 070411 further deep LBT photometry",
  GRB Coordinates Network Circular Service, 6351.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Prieto, J., Garnavich, P., Hill, J., Fan, X., Harris, J., Bechtold,
  J., Dai, X., Martini, P., Stanek, K. Z., Wagner, R. M., Rhoads, J. and
  Pian, E. 2007,
  "GRB 070412 deep LBT imaging",
  GRB Coordinates Network Circular Service, 6374.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Garnavich, P., Fan, X., Dai, X., Prieto, J., Stanek, K. Z., Hill, J.,
  Bechtold, J., Wagner, R. M. and Rhoads, J. 2007,
  "GRB 070419A deep LBT photometry",
  GRB Coordinates Network Circular Service, 6406.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Garnavich, P., Dame, N., Bouche, N., Buschkamp, P., Kuhn, O., Fan, X.,
  Dai, X., Prieto, J., Stanek, K. Z., Hill, J., Becthold, J., Kern, J.,
  Wagner, R. M. and Rhoads, J. 2007,
  "GRB 070518 deep LBT photometry",
  GRB Coordinates Network Circular Service, 6462.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Hill, J., Garnavich, P., Kuhn, O., Bouche, N., Buschkamp, P., Fan, X.,
  Dai, X., Prieto, J., Stanek, K. Z., Milne, P., Bechtold, J., Wagner,
  R. M. and Rhoads, J. 2007,
  "GRB 070419A deep LBT photometry and possible supernova detection",
  GRB Coordinates Network Circular Service, 6486.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Beccari, G., Bellazzini, M., Clementini, G., Federici, L., Fusi Pecci,
  F., Galleti, S., Montegriffo, P., Giallongo, E., Ragazzoni, R.,
  Grazian, A., Baruffolo, A., de Santis, C., Diolaiti, E., di Paola, A.,
  Farinato, J., Fontana, A., Gallozzi, S., Gasparo, F., Gentile, G.,
  Green, R., Hill, J., Kuhn, O., Menci, N., Pasian, F., Pedichini, F.,
  Smareglia, R., Speziali, R., Testa, V., Thompson, D., Vernet, E. and
  Wagner, R. M. 2007,
  "A near-ultraviolet view of the inner region of M31 with the large
  binocular telescope",
  A&A, 476, pp. 193-198.
  (Extragalactic)
  
  Pasachoff, J. M., Babcock, B. A., Souza, S. P., McKay, A. J., Person,
  M. J., Elliot, J. L., Gulbis, A. A., Zuluaga, C. A., Hill, J. M.,
  Ryan, E. V., and Ryan, W. H. 2007,
  "Observational Results from the 2007 March 18 Pluto Stellar Occultation",
  American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #62.03
  (Solar System)
  
  Person, M. J., Elliot, J. L., Gulbis, A. A., Zuluaga, C. A., Babcock,
  B. A., Pasachoff, J. M., McKay, A. J., Souza, S. P., Hubbard, W. B.,
  Kulesa, C. A., McCarthy, D. W., Kern, S.  D., Levine, S. E., Bosh,
  A. S., Ryan, E. V., Ryan, W. H., Meyer, A., Wolf, J. and Hill, J.
  M. 2007,
  "High Altitude Structure in Pluto's Atmosphere from the 2007 March 18
  Stellar Occultation",
  American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #39, #52.14
  (Solar System)
  
  Hill, J. M. 2007,
  "The Large Binocular Telescope: Really a Binocular Now",
  Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVI ASP Conference
  Series, Vol. 376, proceedings of the conference held 15-18 October
  2006 in Tucson, Arizona, USA. ed. R. A. Shaw, F.  Hill and
  D. J. Bell., pp. 643-652.
  (Instrumentation)
  
  Green, R. F. and Hill, J. M. 2007,
  "The Large Binocular Telescope achieves First Light",
  State of the Universe 2007, ed. M. Ratcliffe (Springer - Praxis), pp. 99-105.
  (Instrumentation)
  
  

Ongoing Research

The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) Project is a collaboration between
institutions in Arizona, Germany, Italy, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia and
Minnesota.  The baseline optical configuration of LBT includes
adaptive secondaries of a Gregorian design.  The F/15 secondaries are
undersized to provide a low thermal background focal plane in the
infrared.  The interferometric focus combining the light from the two
8.4 meter primaries will reimage the two folded Gregorian focal planes
to three central instrument locations.  The telescope elevation
structure accommodates swing arms which allow rapid interchange of the
various secondary and tertiary mirrors.  Maximum stiffness and minimal
thermal disturbance were important drivers for the design of the
telescope in order to provide the best possible images for
interferometric observations. January 2007 saw the start of the first
regular science observations during the dark of the moon with the
blue-optimized prime focus camera on the left primary mirror.  The
camera known as the "Large Binocular Camera" (LBC) has four CCD
(charge-coupled devices) chips in the focal plane - each with
dimensions of 2048x4608 pixels - for a total of 36 megapixels. In
front of the CCD array is a set of 6 fused silica corrector lenses
that correct the comatic aberration of the fast primary mirror to make
an extended field-of-view.  This has produced a steady flow of science
publications on topics ranging from dwarf galaxies to gamma-ray
bursts.  The second red-optimized prime focus camera was aligned in
front of the right primary mirror and commissioning observations
started at the end of the year.  Telescope engineering preparations
were underway for the installation of the first secondary and tertiary
mirrors in Spring 2008.  Tracking of the telescope mount was improved
to be routinely 0.01 arcsec rms.  Image quality has been as good as
0.5 arcsec FWHM in U-band, but there have been challenges keeping the
fast optical system in good focus on nights where the temperature is
changing rapidly.  The right primary mirror was aluminized for the
second time in August 2007.
(Instrumentation)