Research advances enabling study of the origins of the universe, discovery of exoplanets, and surveys of distant galaxies were reported at 'the' event for the astronomical instrumentation community.
BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA -- Last week's SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation symposium in Amsterdam -- viewed by the community as its essential event -- drew 2,300 attendees to the Amsterdam RAI conference center. The event ran 1-6 July and included updates on the latest instruments and active astronomical missions, the biennial event's largest-yet exhibition of systems and devices, and a salute to the visionaries of the field who paved the way.
Astronomical space- and ground-based facilities look back into the origins of the universe, search for Earth-like planets outside our solar system, study black holes, dark matter, and much more, yielding discoveries that inspire and intrigue those in the field and non-scientists as well. That theme was repeated often throughout the week, beginning with the first plenary speaker, Heidi Hammel (Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy). She gave an update on the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2018.
"High-profile astronomy missions inspire kids in elementary school to become the scientists of the future," Hammel said. "This doesn't necessarily mean that they end up working in astronomy. They might work on carbon nanotubes or solar panels, but astronomy can serve as a 'first love' of scientific research and discovery."
Other technical highlights included:
See slides from the plenary talks in the SPIE Newsroom at http://spie.org/x88349.xml and read more about the talks in the daily news from on-site at http://spie.org/news.
A highlight of the 92-company exhibition was the Dutch Eyes in the Sky pavilion, showcasing several Dutch space agencies and companies. Exhibitors included key industry suppliers of devices and components for large ground-based telescopes, ground instruments, astronomy information technologies, space telescopes and instruments, detectors, and specialized optics materials and systems.
Conference dinner speaker Jason Spyromillo (European Southern Observatory) led a tribute to the first visionaries of the field who dreamed of putting together large telescopes that are now being built. His entertaining talk highlighted the sometimes competing expectations between the engineers and the scientists, past and present, who set the vision and the implementers who fulfill the vision. In addition to the early dreamers of the past, he proposed a toast to a current visionary, Jerry Nelson, Univ. of California/Santa Cruz and project scientist of the Thirty Meter Telescope, scheduled for completion in 2018.
Conference proceedings are being published individually in the SPIE Digital Library as soon as approved after the meeting, and also in collected print and digital volumes and collections
SPIE Astronomical 2014 will be held in Montreal, Canada, on 21-27 June, at the Palais des congrès de Montréal.
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. The Society serves nearly 225,000 constituents from approximately 150 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books, journals, and a digital library in support of interdisciplinary information exchange, professional growth, and patent precedent. SPIE provided over $2.7 million in support of education and outreach programs in 2011.
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