Author Archives: Gudmundur Kari Stefansson

HPF Subsystem Assembly: Heater Panels and Thermal Straps

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Gudmundur Kari Stefansson

Fabrication of various subsystems related to HPF is well under way, and some of them have reached their final assembly stage. Below you can see a video of the final assembly in one of our clean rooms by team members … Continue reading →

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Astrofest 2014

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Gudmundur Kari Stefansson

Earlier this month (July 9 – July 12) was Penn State’s 16th Astrofest, a four night festival of Astronomy and Astrophysics were Penn State Astronomy students, faculty, and friends gave talks, presentations, planetarium shows, and various other hands-on activities and demonstrations. … Continue reading →

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Keeping it Cool

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Gudmundur Kari Stefansson

The Habitable Zone Planet Finder, being an infrared spectrograph, must be kept from being saturated by infrared radiation emitted from the surroundings. This can be done by keeping the instrument extremely cold–180K, to be precise.  It must be kept at … Continue reading →

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