SOCIOLOGICAL DYNAMICS OF GROWING SUN VERUS SHADE COFFEE IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

poster abstractShade and sun coffee growing have different sociological and ecological costs and benefits. Within the Dominican Republic, both types of coffee are grown, providing an opportunity to compare and contrast how farmers determine which type of coffee to grow. Of the available methods for growing coffee, the literature indicates that shade coffee creates an environment that promotes greater biodiversity, protects the coffee plants from predators such as the coffee berry borer, and provides an “excellent peasant cash crop” (Philpott et al. 2008; Ambrecht and Gallego 2007; Brothers, Wilson, and Dwyer 2008). This study uses a qualitative method to explore how farmers in the Dominican Republic determine whether to grow sun or shade coffee and the environmental and sociological implications of those decisions. In-depth interviews were conducted with eight Dominican farmers and nongovernmental professionals. Questions regarding which type of coffee was grown, growing methods, and what factors influenced coffee growing methods were included. Results indicated that the type of coffee grown was influenced primarily by the type of seeds available, while growing methods depended on the scale of the farm and perceived market value of sun versus shade coffee. Small scale farmers emphasized that growing organic coffee using shade methods was better for the environment and provided them greater economic opportunities. These results indicate that the global organic niche market provides an opportunity for small scale Dominican farmers to be competitive; however, many small scale farmers find it challenging to afford organic certification

CLICK-A: Optical Communication Experiments From a CubeSat Downlink Terminal

The CubeSat Laser Infrared CrosslinK (CLICK) mission is a technology demonstration of low size, weight, and power (SWaP) CubeSat optical communication terminals for downlink and crosslinks. The mission is broken into two phases: CLICK-A, which consists of a downlink terminal hosted in a 3U CubeSat, and CLICK-B/C, which consists of a pair of crosslink terminals each hosted in their own 3U CubeSat. This work focuses on the CLICK-A 1.2U downlink terminal, whose goal was to establish a 10 Mbps link to a low-cost portable 28 cm optical ground station called PorTeL. The terminal communicates with M-ary pulse position modulation (PPM) at 1550 nm using a 200 mW Erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) with a 1.3 mrad FWHM beam divergence. CLICK-A ultimately serves as a risk reduction phase for the CLICK-B/C terminals, with many components first being demonstrated on CLICK-A. CLICK-A was launched to the International Space Station on July 15th, 2022 and was deployed by Nanoracks on September 6th, 2022 into a 51.6° 414 km orbit. We present the results of experiments performed by the mission with the optical ground station located at MIT Wallace Astrophysical Observatory in Westford, MA. Successful acquisition of an Earth to space 5 mrad FWHM (5 Watts at 976 nm) pointing beacon was demonstrated by the terminal on the second experiment on November 2nd, 2022. First light on the optical ground station tracking camera was established on the third experiment on November 10th, 2022. The optical ground station showed sufficient open, coarse, and fine tracking performance to support links with the terminal with a closed-loop RMS tracking error of 0.053 mrad. Results of three optical downlink experiments that produced beacon tracking results are discussed. These experiments demonstrated that the internal microelectromechanical system (MEMS) fine steering mirror (FSM) corrected for an average blind spacecraft pointing error of 8.494 mrad and maintained an average RMS pointing error of 0.175 mrad after initial blind pointing error correction. With these results, the terminal demonstrated the ability to achieve sufficient fine pointing of the 1.3 mrad FWHM optical communication beam without pointing feedback from the terminal to improve the nominal spacecraft pointing. Spacecraft drag reduction maneuvers were used to extend mission life and inform the mission operations of the CLICK-B/C phase of the mission. Results from the spacecraft drag maneuvers are also presented

Haze in Pluto's atmosphere: Results from SOFIA and ground-based observations of the 2015 June 29 Pluto occultation

On UT 29 June 2015, the occultation by Pluto of a bright star (r′ = 11.9) was observed from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) and several ground-based stations in New Zealand and Australia. Pre-event astrometry allowed for an in-flight update to the SOFIA team with the result that SOFIA was deep within the central flash zone (~22 km from center). Analysis of the combined data leads to the result that Pluto's middle atmosphere is essentially unchanged from 2011 and 2013 (Person et al. 2013; Bosh et al. 2015); there has been no significant expansion or contraction of the atmosphere. Additionally, our multi-wavelength observations allow us to conclude that a haze component in the atmosphere is required to reproduce the light curves obtained. This haze scenario has implications for understanding the photochemistry of Pluto's atmosphere

An ultra-wide bandwidth (704 to 4 032 MHz) receiver for the Parkes radio telescope

We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band ( ${∼}60$ ), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability

45 Years of Telescope Automation at MIT’s Wallace Astrophysical Observatory

Since the conception of the George R. Wallace Jr. Astrophysical Observatory (WAO) at MIT in 1971 we have had a focus on applying cutting-edge technology to astronomical equipment and enabling automated or remote observing for scientists and students alike. A key strength of our program has been including undergraduates in the research, design, and construction of systems. These experiences have led to breakthroughs that have been invaluable for both the observatory and the observers. Wallace Observatory was also the site of the first robotic telescope conference (1975), “Telescope Automation,” which set stringent goals to which we compare our observatory today. Forty-five years later, looking back on the days of punch cards and tape reels at WAO, we must now ask, did we achieve the goals set out for us in the 1970’s? Here, we discuss this question and examine our more recent efforts to automate our modern educational telescopes while looking forward to an exciting upgrade to one of our original telescope domes

Morphometric comparison of Australian Shy and New Zealand White-capped Albatrosses

Albatrosses are frequently killed by longline and trawl fishery operations but the relative impact of such activities at the species or population level are largely unknown. Such information requires the widespread presence of fishery observers and an ability to identify accurately the species and provenance of all albatrosses killed by fishing vessels. In this study we investigate the use of morphometric measurements to identify Shy (Thalassarche cauto) from White-capped (T. steadi) Albatrosses, two taxa recently suggested to be separate species. Measurements were taken from a collection of 103 Shy and White-capped Albatrosses killed by longline vessels within the Australian Fishing Zone between 1988 and 2000 and identified to species level using a recently developed DNA-based test. Within-sex comparisons of Shy and White-capped Albatrosses found that six of the 10 measurements were significantly different for both sexes. However, all measurements showed considerable overlap and no single measurement separated the two taxa. Discriminant classification functions based on wing chord, maximum head width and two bill measurements were able to simultaneously identify the species and sex of approximately 84% of bycatch specimens (n = 70). The discriminate classification functions for species identification alone correctly assigned approximately 89% of bycatch specimens. When this classification method was applied to measurements taken from live specimens a similar level of accuracy was achieved (82%, n = 17)