The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer: 2014 status update

The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer has been designed to be a 10 × 1.4 m aperture long-baseline optical/near-infrared interferometer in an equilateral "Y" configuration, and is being deployed west of Socorro, NM on the Magdalena Ridge. Unfortunately, first light for the facility has been delayed due to the current difficult funding regime, but during the past two years we have made substantial progress on many of the key subsystems for the array. The design of all these subsystems is largely complete, and laboratory assembly and testing, and the installation and site acceptance testing of key components on the Ridge are now underway. This paper serves as an overview and update on the facility's present status and changes since 2012, and the plans for future activities and eventual operations of the facilities. © (2014) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer is funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the State of New Mexico, and New Mexico Tech with previous funding from the Navy Research Laboratory (NRL, agreement no. N00173-01-2-C902).This is the final published version of the article, also available from SPIE at http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1891908. Copyright 2014 Society of Photo Optical Instrumentation Engineers. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited. http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.205733

The MROI fringe tracker: laboratory tracking with ICONN

This is the final version of the article, also available from SPIE at http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1891933. Copyright 2014 Society of Photo Optical Instrumentation Engineers. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited.\ud \ud http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2055603The loop is closed on ICONN, the Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer fringe tracker. Results from laboratory experiments demonstrating ICONN's ability to track realistic, atmospheric-like path difference perturbations in real-time are shown. Characterizing and understanding the behavior and limits of ICONN in a controlled environment are key for reaching the goals of the MROI. The limiting factors in the experiments were found to be the light delivery system and temporary path length correction mechanism; not the on-sky components of ICONN. ICONN was capable of tracking fringes with a coherence loss below 5%; this will only improve in its final deployment.The Magdalena Ridge Observatory Interferometer is funded by the US Department of Transportation, the State of\ud New Mexico, and New Mexico Tech with previous funding from the Navy Research Laboratory (NRL, agreement\ud no. N00173-01-2-C902)