Welcome and intro to CATS

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Welcome and intro to CATS

• Claire Max
• CfAO Director
• CATS Workshop
• August 7, 2005

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Welcome to the Center for Adaptive Optics

• An NSF Science and Technology Center
• Cross disciplinary programs
• 10 years (1999-2009), 4M/yr
• AO for astronomy, vision science
• Headquarters at the University of California
  Santa Cruz
• 11 other universities, plus national laboratories
  and industrial partners

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CfAO Mission

• Advance and Disseminate Adaptive Optics knowledge
  in service to science, health care, industry, and
  education

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The CfAO is organized into four Themes

• Designed to focus efforts, foster Center-wide
  collaborations toward common goals (Themes), and
  to leave valued monuments as our legacy
• Themes
• Theme 1 Education and Human Resources
• Theme 2 AO for Extremely Large Telescopes
• Theme 3 Extreme AO (ultra high contrast)
• Theme 4 Compact Vision Science Instrumentation
  for Clinical and Scientific Use

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How CfAO works

• Research projects
• Annual proposal process among CfAO members
• Education programs
• Grad students and postdocs learn modern teaching
  methods such as "inquiry based learning"
• Use these methods in CfAO-sponsored short courses
  (college level) and summer programs (high school)
• Emphasis on increasing the participation of
  students from groups that are under-represented
  in science and technology
• Retreats, workshops, Summer Schools
• Graduate course in AO http//www.ucolick.org/max/
  289C/

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The Center for Adaptive Optics Treasury Survey
(CATS)

• The Goal
• CATS is following up deep HST survey fields
  (GOODS, GEMS, EGS) with adaptive optics imaging
  in the near IR to study the evolution of galaxies
  and their sub- components over the last 10 Gyr.
• The Team
• UCLA- M. Barczys, S. Wright, J. Larkin
• UCSC- J. Melbourne, C. Max, D. Koo, J. Nelson, J.
  Lotz, A. Metevier, S. Faber, R. Guhathakurta, S.
  Severson
• U Hawaii- M. Chun
• HIA- E. Steinbring
• U Wisconsin- A. Sheinis

This 3- color image around a guide star contains
gt 30 galaxies. Two HST images, filters F606W and
F850W, are blue and green respectively. The Keck
CATS near IR AO image (2.2 mm) is in red. Keck
pixel scale was rebinned to match HST (0.05"/pix).
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Why AO?
With AO
Without AO

• High resolution in the near-IR better than
  NICMOS.
• High sensitivity to point sources ( D4)
• Near IR penetrates dust better than optical
• Near IR is a good measure of old stars

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CATS Science

• Galaxy Decomposition
• Are distant bulges red or blue?
• If red, are they old, or young and dusty?
• Are disk galaxies forming from the inside out?
• Are the outer parts of galaxies blue because they
  are metal poor or young?

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CATS Science

• Galaxy Mergers
• Are distant mergers predominantly major or minor?
• What percentage of mergers are dry or between
  evolved stellar systems?
• What are the differences between mergers in red
  and blue light?

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CATS Science

• AGNs
• How is AGN activity correlated with bulge growth?
• What morphology distinguishes weak x-ray sources
  from strong?
• What are the extreme x-ray sources that have no
  optical counterpart?

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CATS as Driver for AO Technology
Multi-Conjugate AO
OSIRIS
LGS AO
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A CATS Legacy

• The CATS project is planning a public data
  release of Keck AO imaging in the GOODS, GEMS and
  EGS fields.
• We hope that these data will
• Spark new projects
• Introduce astronomers to AO data
• Provide a framework in which to discuss the next
  generation AO instruments.