The Low Surface Brightness Sky with the 48-Lens Dragonfly Telephoto Array

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

The team will use their array of telephoto lenses, Dragonfly, to observe the dim starlight from galaxies. Such dim optical signals have never been observed before. The innovative array is located in New Mexico and operated from Connecticut or Ontario, Canada. The observations will be used to test models and simulations of the dim starlight. The team will continue to develop industrial links with Canon, a lens manufacturer. Undergraduates and graduate students will gain hands-on experience with instrumentation, software and observations. The team will use their purpose-built array to observe the low-surface-brightness stellar emission from galaxies. Their goals are to study (1) the outskirts of nearby galaxies, (2) the faint dwarf galaxies around luminous spiral galaxies, and (3) the ultra diffuse galaxies in the Coma Cluster and Virgo Cluster.