BTFI

July 2010

First light at SOAR telescope. The report about the first light is here.

May 6th 2010

First light at laboratory.

March 1th 2010

Starting tests with the instrument and with the software.

February 9th 2010

Instrument is at IAG, waiting for optics, tests and commisioning.

December 2th 2009

The mechanical mounting of the instrument arrived at IAG, and the assembling of the structure will be made by Rene and Jair.

March 17th 2008

Report from Keith:
I am very happy to report that not only is the prototype now together as one piece but it works. Rene and Reitano received the last mechanical pieces mid-week and the motors and drivers finally arrived on Friday allowing assembly to be completed. Fernando joined the team at INPE on Friday and he and Cesar Strauss were able to get the motors to run without problems. Only very low level software instructions are currently available, but Fernando will be working this week to enable a more user-friendly graphical interface which includes a schematic model of the iBTF.
Rene and I have agreed that the first tests should be done in INPE this week, given the ready availability of the INPE workshops - we will need to make jigs and fixtures to mount test optics, lasers, cameras etc. I will be bring materials that we are borrowing down from LNA to INPE on Monday evening. Subsequently I hope we will be able to bring the prototype up to LNA where Cesar and Ligia de Oliveira can continue the tests. Unfortunately Easter is going to slow this transition down somewhat and so it is not clear whether we'll be able to move the prototype up to LNA at the end of this week or the beginning of next, but once installed, Rene and I will be frequent visitors to LNA for the period of the tests which will hopefully be concluded well before PDR in June.

March 13th 2008

1. KT gave a BTFI talk at the Observatório Nacional (Rio de Janeiro) on 29 Feb'08. (the ppt are in BTFI wiki)
2. Luiz and Denis will be giving posters at the Optical Complex Systems conference to be held in Cannes, France from 17 to 20 March 2008. Denis and Luiz's poster will be in the wiki
3. The optical design is now complete (courtesy Damien Jones, Prime Optics, Qld., Australia) and will be going out to tender when RfQs have been prepared.
4. Rene has supplied recent solid drawings of the BTFI structure and layout (available on the wiki)

March 9th 2008

Report from Keith:
“Almost all the machine work has been done (courtesy of MetalCard), and almost all the motors, gears and slides have arrived (courtesy AutoMotion) and great progress is being made in putting everything together as a working unit in Rene's outer office. What is left to do (on the mechanical side) is a few items of minor machining which will be done on Monday in the INPE workshops; the arrival of the replacement for the missing ball screw (again Monday) and a new piece necessitated by an incorrect gear mechanism delivered to us through AutoMotion. This piece will be made by MetalCard and delivered to INPE on Wednesday. This means that even with Rene and Reitano working over this weekend, the earliest possibility for complete integration of the prototype will be towards the end of next week (14 March). Although this is later than anticipated by about 10 days, nevertheless I see now that our plans took no account of highly predictable and natural delays in getting the machining done and putting it all together into a working device.
We also had no contingency in delivery delays and the occasional small errors (eg: missing holes etc) so I take full responsibility for being too optimistic in our planning. Also this weekend, Giseli and Fernando have been working on the control software. Saturday saw them working in INPE on integrating Giseli's Linux system with Fernando's Windows interface to the motors. Today (Sunday) they are taking the three motors to AutoMotion so as to install the PLC programming. Fernando will then take all three motors back with him to B-H where he will complete the motion control, returning to INPE the following weekend (or maybe Friday) so that the integration of the prototype can be completed. Rene tells me he's available for weekend work again.
So I see the following week, beginning 17 March as the time when we the fully integrated prototype in action. I think we should plan for the first mechanism trials during the early part of this week with the possibility of bringing the system to Itajuba (LNA) for Cesar and Ligia to begin the tests in earnest sometime later in the week (tbc). In fact we may explore the possibility of C&L coming down to INPE during that week to familiarize themselves with the prototype before bring it to LNA.

January 22th 2008

Keith Taylor gave a BTFI talk, by IAG PolyCom (teleconference) to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) meeting on International Developments on Tunable Filter Imaging.

January 20th 2008

Patricio Schurter, the chief mechanical engineer of the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, Chile, has agreed to participate as a reviewer during the evaluation process that will happen during PDR. Claude Carignan (professor at U. of Montreal) has unofficially agreed to participate as well. Marco Bonati will be invited in the next days.

January 16th 2008

The company Metalcard was hired to build the parts of the prototype. The design made by Rene Laporte and the drawings done by Luiz Reitano were sent to the company and the fabrication and pre-assembly will be ready by Feb 29th. The tests of the prototype will be done in March and the results of the tests will be presented in the Preliminary design review meeting on March 26th and 27th.

January 15th 2008

A prototype of the instrument is being built. Part of the motors for the prototype arrived in December and the software for integrating the moving parts is being written by Fernando Fontes.

January 1st 2008

Keith Taylor has been appointed Manager of the project as of January 1st 2008.

26 September 2007

The Concept Design Review of the instrument took place on September 24th and 25th, 2007, in São Paulo. 
The outside reviewers were: Dr. Claude Carignan (Chair, from the University of Montreal), Marco Bonati (detector/controllers expert from CTIO) and Dani Guzman (previously in Caltech and now in Durham).  

In section Documents the seminars presented in the CoDR meeting are available.