ASTRI Mini-Array and CTA: four hundred new “tiles” from Media Lario
In the image above: a completed mirror with some team people: from left to right, Giovanni Pareschi (ASTRI Mini-Array Project PI), Salvatore Scuderi (Program Manager) and Nicola La palombara (Product Assurance Manager). Credit: Inaf Brera.
Image information: shooted with a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod and Arca-Swiss d4 geared pan FlipLock head, UV filter.
Lighting: two LED Walimex PRO Nova 900 Plus Daylight panels.
February 2022 – Under a contract awarded by the INAF Astronomical Observatory of Brera, Media Lario has completed the production of the first block of mirrors for the ASTRI Mini-Array telescopes and for the medium-sized telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array.
Of the four hundred hexagonal panels, two hundred will be used to construct the large primary mirrors of the nine ASTRI Mini-Array telescopes, the gamma-ray astronomy facility under construction at the Teide Observatory (Tenerife) in the Canary Islands.
The other two hundred will form the reflecting surface of two of the nine medium-sized telescopes (Medium Size Telescopes, MSTs) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (Cta), which will be installed at the La Palma Observatory, the Northern site of CTA, also in the Canary Islands.
The production of the hexagonal mirrors is described in an article published today in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and System.
With the delivery of the segments and the next installation on the respective telescopes, the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) adds another important “tile” to the construction of the future large arrays of Cherenkov telescopes for the very high energies.
«The technology of making Cherenkov mirrors based on cold glass replica was developed in 2006 thanks to the very close and fruitful collaboration between researchers and technicians from INAF and Media Lario and has now become the reference technology for CTA» underlines Giovanni Pareschi, Principal Investigator of the ASTRI Mini-Array project. «With this activity we have shown how the production can be industrialized while at the same time maintaining the quality high. This is a great success of the Italian technical and scientific community».
The laboratory with one of the hexagonal panel just completed.
Scientific article: “Mirror production for the Cherenkov telescopes of the ASTRI mini-array and the MST project for the Cherenkov Telescope Array” by Nicola La Palombara, Giorgia Sironi, Enrico Giro, Salvatore Scuderi, Rodolfo Canestrari, Simone Iovenitti, Markus Garczarczyk, Maria Krause, Sebastian Diebold, Rachele Millul, Fabio Marioni, Nadia Missaglia, Matteo Redaelli, Giuseppe Valsecchi, Fabio Zocchi, Adelfio Zanoni and Giovanni Pareschi, Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 2022.
Article on MediaINAF: Quattrocento specchi per Astri e Cta
ASTRI is a INAF gamma ray experiment with the collaboration of other international institutions (P.I. G. Pareschi) with the aim of observing the gamma ray sky from a few to hundreds of Tev by building a Mini-Array of 9 telescopes in Tenerife (Canarie, Spain – thanks to the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canaria, IAC hospitality). The Mini-Array telescopes are similar to those that will be constructed for the CTA project in the south.
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In collaboration with Giuseppe Fiasconaro.
This post is also available in: Italian
