Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter North instrument I: optical design, filter design, and calibration
Journal article, 2024
The Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter North is an optical polarimeter designed for the needs of the Polar-Areas Stellar Imaging in Polarimetry High-Accuracy Experiment survey. It will be installed on the 1.3-m telescope at the Skinakas Observatory in Crete, Greece. After commissioning, it will measure the 30x30 arcmin2 polarization of millions of stars at high galactic latitude, aiming to measure hundreds of stars per square degree. The astronomical filter used in the instrument is a modified, polarimetrically neutral broadband Sloan Digital Sky Survey-r. This instrument will be a pioneering one due to its large field of view (FoV) of and high-accuracy polarimetry measurements. The accuracy and sensitivity of the instrument in polarization fraction will be at the 0.1% and 0.05% levels, respectively. Four separate 4kx4k charge-coupled devices will be used as the instrument detectors, each imaging one of the 0-, 45-, 90-, and 135-deg polarized FoV separately, therefore making the instrument a four-channel, one-shot polarimeter. Here, we present the overall optical design of the instrument, emphasizing the aspects of the instrument that are different from Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter South. We also present a customized design of filters appropriate for polarimetry along with details on the management of the instrument size and its polarimetric calibration.
Polar-Areas Stellar Imaging in Polarimetry High-Accuracy Experiment
wide field polarimeter
Wide Area Linear Optical Polarimeter
polarimetry
optics
optical polarimetry
Author
John Andrew Kypriotakis
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
University of Crete
Siddharth Maharana
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
South African Astronomical Observatory
Ramya M. Anche
University of Arizona
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Chaitanya V. Rajarshi
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Anamparambu Ramaprakash
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Bhushan Joshi
Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics
Artem Basyrov
University of Oslo
Dmitry Blinov
University of Crete
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
Tuhin Ghosh
Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI)
Eirik Gjerlow
University of Oslo
Sebastian Kiehlmann
University of Crete
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
Nikolaos Mandarakas
University of Crete
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
Georgia Virginia Panopoulou
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
Katerina Papadaki
University of Crete
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
Vasiliki Pavlidou
University of Crete
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
Timothy J. Pearson
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Vincent Pelgrims
Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Stephen B. Potter
University of Witwatersrand
South African Astronomical Observatory
Anthony C. S. Readhead
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Raphael Skalidis
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Konstantinos Tassis
University of Crete
Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH)
Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems
2329-4124 (ISSN) 2329-4221 (eISSN)
Vol. 10 4Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
DOI
10.1117/1.JATIS.10.4.044005
Related datasets
URI: https://github.com/HeisenbergK/NewWALOPCalibrate2Dens.git