Astronomy: Astronomy and Instrumentation

Courses 2015-16

Projects

Research projects

Minor and major projects

The second part of the programme consists of a minor research project [24 EC] and a major research project [36 EC], resulting in the MSc thesis, and is therefore also called MSc project. The substance of the research projects will be individually decided between students and research staff involved in the training programme.

The minor project should be related to observational astronomy, and the major project to astronomical instrumentation. With regard to the latter, this can be hands-on lab work at Leiden Observatory.

The major research project, or MSc project, could also be conducted at one of Leiden Observatory’s research partners, such as:

• Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands and cosine in Leiden

• TNO in Delft

• ESA-ESTEC in Noordwijk

• ASTRON in Dwingeloo

• SRON in Utrecht/Groningen.

In this case, students will be participating in one of the international projects Leiden Observatory is carrying out with leading Dutch astronomical and astrophysical institutes.

During the instrumentation-related courses, students need to design an instrument or device. For their MSc project, however, students are also expected to develop a prototype of an instrument.

Proposed projects

Proposed projects

• Prototyping of a truly achromatic liquid crystal polarization modulator
  For more information, please contact the supervisor by e-mail.
  Supervisor: dr. Frans Snik
  Level: Major/Minor

• Measurement of slit polarization and comparison with theory
  A spectrograph slit creates a certain amount of polarization. To be able to predict this instrumental polarization from a slit, a model based on waveguide theory has been established. This model can be extended to also cover other diffractive polarization effects.
  The student will measure the slit polarization for a range of slit widths and wavelengths. These measurements are then compared to the models.
  Supervisor: Prof. dr. Christoph Keller
  Level: Major/Minor

• Optimal coronagraph design for exoplanet characterization
  Current approaches to designing corographs do not necessarily find the optimum instrument configuration that works at an actual telescope. In this project, a general code will be developed based on simulated annealing or genetic optimization to automatically find the optimum coronagraph for a given telescope and science target.
  Supervisor: Prof. dr. Christoph Keller
  Level: Major/Minor

• Detecting Water Vapor Turbulence for mid-IR observations
  METIS, which will be one of the first instruments on the 39-meter European Extremely Large Telescope, will be the only instrument able to deliver diffraction limited images in the mid-IR range, mainly because Adaptive Optics is much easier than for other instruments. One of the remaining challenges is that the image quality of METIS might ultimately be determined by variations in the composition of the atmosphere, i.e., the amount of water and CO2 and other trace gasses. Your job, should you accept it, is to determine as accurately as possible the impact of composition changes on the performance of METIS and try to find ways to mitigate its effects.
  Supervisor: dr. Remko Stuik
  Level: Minor

• Advanced tracking and fast tip/tilt correction for the old observatory telescope
  Supervisor: dr. Remko Stuik
  Level: Major

• Implementation of the all-sky camera at the Old Observatory
  Supervisor: dr. Remko Stuik
  Level: Major

• Verification of the pointing accuracy of Cherenkov Telescopes (only if timing works out)
  Supervisor: dr. Remko Stuik
  Level: Major

• Characterization of different ice constituents
  Dust grains in space are coated by several tens of layers of ice. In the Sackler Laboratory such interstellar ices can be simulated and within this minor project it is your task to spectroscopically characterize the different ice constituents. The data are used to compare with astronomical observations.
  You do not need an experimental background for this project. You will receive an intense laboratory training and after 2-3 weeks you are supposed to record spectra with your own setup.
  Supervisor: Prof. dr. Harold Linnartz
  Level: Minor
  See also Sackler Lab

• Spectroscopic experiments on supersonically expanding plasma
  Diffuse interstellar band features are absorption bands observed in star light crossing translucent clouds. The molecular origin of these bands is unknown. A new setup to search for eventual carriers has been recently constructed and within this major project it is your task (under guidance of a postdoc and/or PhD student) to perform spectroscopic experiments on supersonically expanding plasma, simulating the harsh conditions in space.
  Some experience with physical equipment will be a clear advantage for this project.
  Supervisor: Prof. dr. Harold Linnartz
  Level: Major
  See also Sackler Lab

• Leiden Database for Ice (LDI)
  You don’t like laboratory work, but you like to link laboratory data to databases. Then this is the right project for you. For more than 20 years the Sackler laboratory is recording spectra of interstellar ice, and these data are public, but hard to get, given the rather poor status the LDI (Leiden Database for Ice) is in. You need programming skills, as well as spectroscopic knowledge of solid state features. You are able to fit spectra and to translate fits in fundamental parameters. This is a challenging project !
  Supervisor: Prof. dr. Harold Linnartz
  Level: Major
  See also Sackler Lab

(Last updated: August 25, 2015)

Previous projects

Previous projects

2014

• TreePol: Development of an instrument to measure circular polarization signals of homochirality in biomolecules
  Student: Luuk Visser

• Calibration of iSpex
  Student: Ritse Heinsbroek

• Polychromatic Polarization Modulation with Ferro-Electric Liquid Crystals
  Student: Ronniy Joseph

2013

• LOUPE: Observe the Earth as an Exoplanet
  Student: Jens Hoeijmakers

• Modeling a Stepped Luneberg Lens for All-Sky Imaging
  Student: Mason Carney

2012

• Development of the iSPEX spectropolarimetric add-on for smartphones
  Student: Stephanie Heikamp