Sky & Telescope - May 2019 - 65

light commonly plagues fast optics and
large mirrors, which creates even more
challenges for detecting the very faintest of signals necessary for this kind of
observational confi rmation.
Then one professor had a crazy idea.
For extended objects, all that's needed
is a fast focal ratio on an optic with
very low light-scattering characteristics. Van Dokkum, who is also an avid
wildlife photographer, learned that
Canon had just introduced a revolutionary new nano-coating technology
with a subwavelength structure that
the manufacturer claimed had unprecedentedly low-light-scatter characteristics. His idea was to put a commercial CCD camera behind
one of these new lenses and shoot some galaxies to see if
the camera picked anything up around it. Abraham didn't
think it would work due to all the additional lens elements
in a high-end telephoto lens, but van Dokkum was confident that Canon's new nano coatings might do the trick, so
they agreed to give it a try.

CROWDED GAZE
Seen at left and above, Dragonfly 1
stands ready for an evening of observing. Each of its 24 specially coated
Canon 400mm f/2.8 lenses is mated
with its own SBIG STF-8300M CCD
camera. All 24 are aligned to image the
same target simultaneously.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos
were provided by the Dragonfly team.
s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e . c o m * M AY 2 0 1 9

D E N N I S D I C I C C O (2)

Those friends were Roberto Abraham
of the University of Toronto, and Yale
University's Pieter van Dokkum. Both
were frustrated with the fact that most
research projects have a budget and
lifespan that far exceed the typical graduate student's tenure. It seemed nearly
impossible to engage a graduate student
on the new construction of an instrument through its completion, much less
for him or her to use it to gather data. It
would be great if it were possible to build
an entry-level, cutting-edge system that
didn't cost a minimum of $10 million or
take 10 years to finish.
Both professors were trying to
detect extremely low surface brightness features around
galaxies. Current models predict that most galaxies
should be surrounded by debris from their formation,
observable as large swaths of stars in faint glowing halos.
These halos are hard to detect, however. They are also
thought to be quite large and extended, requiring widefield instruments with fast focal ratios. But backscattered

65


http://www.skyandtelescope.com

Sky & Telescope - May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - May 2019

Contents
Sky & Telescope - May 2019 - Cover1
Sky & Telescope - May 2019 - Cover2
Sky & Telescope - May 2019 - 1
Sky & Telescope - May 2019 - Contents
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